As Arceus Decrees It
by J the Stickybeak
Summary: Ash is the chosen one. It's his job to save the world. Over and over and over again. He's not allowed to stop his journey by becoming champion or because he fell in love and Arceus has assigned Mewtwo to ensure the later. All things considered Mewtwo thinks he's done a fine job. Until some random trainer shows up on a Solgaleo and ruins everything. minor OC. Ash/Harem
1. Ch 1: When coincidence counters destiny

Hello to those of you who bother reading authors notes. I got the idea from the concept that Ash, as the chosen one, is technically part of the world's system acting as a defence mechanism. Once you take that into account, it is not unreasonable that Arceus, as an entity not bound by human morals, may take measures to ensure Ash continues to act as the chosen one. Things like becoming the champion (thus completing his goal of becoming a pokémon master) or falling in love are very likely to anchor him to a single region and prevent travel to the places that need it.

Then I take into account that the last time Ash saw Mewtwo, (The first one as I consider the one in the Genesect movie to be a separate entity due to different origin, personality and apparently a female voice actor) he was leaving on a journey to explore the world and find his purpose in life etcetera, etcetera. What better purpose for a psychic type with globe spanning powers then to monitor the chosen one and ensure that no one gets too close. It also ties in nicely with the fact that none of the girls stick around for more then a league (bar Misty).

Lastly, about the OC in this story. They are just a plot device to get the ball rolling. I'm being cheeky and calling them J but the main characters are still Ash and his friends. The OC is essentially an end game protagonist from Sun etc. who decided to use his Solgaleo to take a look around the multiverse as demonstrated in Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon. I'm not going to describe what he looks like beyond him being tall, skinny and wearing long sleaves and jeans. His appearance is not important, as his role is fairly minor, as in he plans on ditching the cast once he realises he's in trouble with the local Arceus minor. Multiverse travellers as a general rule try not to get involved in local affairs.

Now on to the story!

I do not own pokémon as it belongs to The Pokémon Company, Game Freak and Nintendo. Long may they reign!

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Chapter 1: When coincidence counters destiny

The day started out like any other in Alola. The sun was shining, pokémon were playing and Ash was at school. That promptly came to an end as a thunderous boom happened just outside the classroom that sounded similar to a tonne of steel ploughing headfirst into the ground. Obviously everyone in Ash's class went outside to investigate, assuming that it was probably Team Rocket yet again.

What they did not expect to see was the legendary Solgaleo sitting in a small crater rubbing its' nose with a paw while a trainer lay sprawled out on the ground next to it. Directly above them was a closing ultra wormhole that had been pointing directly at the earth.

"OOOOWWWWW," groaned the trainer, "Sun, next time make sure the portal is perpendicular to the ground before jumping though it."

The creature of legend gave a snort of agreement while continuing to rub its' nose. Everyone else just stared dumbstruck as the trainer slowly staggered to his feet, dusted himself off and then turned around.

"Crap, we got spotted," he said cynically as if his day was about to get a whole lot worse, "Could you guys please tell me that this kind of thing is an everyday occurrence. It would make my life so much easier."

As if a switch had been flicked, everyone bar Ash promptly mobbed the legendary pokémon shouting and chattering about everything from how it's fur felt to how impressive it was. Ash, as the only person who had not spent a decade hearing about Solgaleo and having met and remained calm in the presence of legendary pokémon before, walked over to the mystery trainer that had been knocked aside by the crowd and offered him a hand.

"Is that solgaleo really yours?" he asked as he pulled the boy to his feet. The guy looked about two years older than Ash so he guessed that the trainer was about 19 and was fully equipped with a backpack, mega ring and z-ring. Ash noted the unusual trait that the right side of his belt had multiple strips of leather attached hanging from it, to which multiple sets of poké balls were attached. But since all but six were locked he decided no harm, no foul but hoped the trainer remembered to feed all his pokémon regularly.

"Thanks and yes that solgaleo belongs to me. Judging by everyone's reaction I'd say that such things aren't common around here. My names J by the way. Give me a second I just need to check something," replied J as he pulled out a handheld device from his jacket pocket.

"My names Ash. Could you tell me how you did that? I mean how you caught Solgaleo, I've only met a handful of people who could catch a legendary and they've always been tight lipped about how they did it," said Ash, his question tumbling out in a rush, "Wait a second, your not related to that poacher pokémon hunter J are you?"

"Who?" asked the trainer with disinterest as he tapped his handheld device, which brought up a holo display and began beeping, "And to answer your first question, fifty ultra balls usually does the trick although you should use dusk balls if you can manage it."

"Er, uh, thanks and don't worry about name thing. It's obviously a coincidence and no one else here knows who she is anyway," chirped Ash in his usual optimistic tone.

The device in J's hands finished scrolling through its bullet list and gave a loud ping before turning off. J put it away and turned to fully face Ash, "No problem, now if you could do me a favour and extract your rabid fan girling friends before Sun gets nervous and bites one of them."

"What? Oh right. Hey everybody, give Solgaleo some space. You should all know that pokémon don't like being crowded like that. Come and say high to J. He did manage to catch the thing after all," yelled Ash, trying to get his friends attention.

Realising the dangers of upsetting a giant cloud leaping predator, everyone promptly took two steps back and took a moment to process the second part of Ash's statement. Chaos promptly resumed as they mobbed J asking questions at a hundred miles an hour.

"Settle down everyone. I'm sure J will explain if you just give him a moment," cried Ash over the din.

After a few minutes, in which no one learned anything, Ash finally managed to calm everyone down so that a civil conversation could be held and J finally got a chance to speak.

"First question. Since this is Alola, do you know about ultra wormholes," asked J.

"Why yes. They-" replied Prof. Oak but he was cut off.

"Excellent! That makes things easy. You see Sun here can safely open and close ultra wormholes to locally attached pocket dimensions were ultra beasts live as well as parallel universes. After discovering such a wonderful ability, I decided to kick my journey up a notch and start visiting other parallel universes in the neighbourhood," J explained with enthusiasm.

"Such . . . ground breaking information. I MUST PUBLISH the results IMMEDIATELY. Samson Oak, winner of the next Nobel prize for confirming the existence of the multiverse, here I come," shouted Prof. Oak as he ran off, presumably to his laboratory.

"That is both an unbelievable, awesome and completely realistic explanation all at the same time," Sophocles responded in awe.

"That went completely over my head but it doesn't matter because we're going to have a battle. How's three on three sound," exclaimed Ash

"Yeah, wait what? I never agreed to a battle," J quipped back.

"Come one, just one, I'm totally psyched to battle someone with a solgaleo," said Ash.

"Ok first up, I don't use Sun for normal battles, second, I don't want to curb stomp a beginner whose clearly still going an academy," retorted J.

"I'm not a beginner. I've won the orange league, competed in six regional leagues and beat the whole battle frontier," Ash answered smugly, "You don't have to use Solgaleo but I really want a battle."

"Wait, the frontier. That's actually pretty impressive, not to mention something I haven't managed to do yet. Alright one three on three battle but I'll judging your skill first with my most recent starter before I go all out," J agreed before selecting a poké ball and releasing a rowlet.

"If your using a grass starter then I'll start with a fire starter," cried Ash as he released Litten.

Everyone got back to a safe watching distance and J recalled Solgaleo. The battle was intense, light hearted and everything else a good casual match should be. Litten defeated Rowlet only to get knocked out by a strong pelipper that had the local Alolan drizzle ability. Ash sent out his Lycanroc next and they duked it out for about a minute before it took a hydro pump to the face. Pikachu then pulled through by one shotting the bird.

"Great move Ash, but I'm afraid that pikachu you have is on another level. I'm going to pull out all the stops to beat it," called J, "Go Alakazam!"

Ash recognized the Chest plate containing the mega stone a moment before J tapped his mega ring.

"Ok Pikachu, lets use **Gigavolt Havoc** ," ordered Ash as tapped the crystal and began the motions.

"Piiikaaaaaa!"

"Out pace him and finish this with psychic," shouted J. Unfortunately for him Alakazam hesitated before Ash and Pikachu's power and lost the window of opportunity.

ZAP!  
BOOOOOOM!

"Alakazam is unable to battle. The winner is Ash," called Kiawe who had been acting as referee for the match.

J stared in stunned shock while Ash and Pikachu celebrated. Then after a long pause he burst out laughing and congratulated Ash on the win. After checking his pokémon in at the pokémon centre, J spent the day with Ash and his friends while avoiding all questions related to Solgaleo other than arguing with Kiawe about how naming it Sun was a stupid idea while J argued that 'Sun', 'Owl' and 'Pelican' were perfectly good names.

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As the sun began to set Ash waved goodbye to his friends and got ready to go home with Prof. Kukui.

"Professor, a moment please. Ash, you should go on ahead," called J, "before I turn in for the night at the pokémon centre there is something I need to discuss with you in private Professor."

Kukui nodded to Ash to go on ahead before ushering J into his office, "So what's up cousin?"

"Ok then, right, uh, this is harder than it looks. Prof. Kukui do you remember during battle, right before Pikachu's attack, my mega alakazam appeared to hesitate," J queried.

"Now your not going to be a sore loser about that, are you? I really expected better from you J," said Prof. Kukui.

"No, no, not all, it was a really fun battle and it's our fault that Alakazam and I lost. My point is that Alakazam is an elite four level pokémon. When you get to that level your pokémon don't get intimidated by a pikachu using a generic z-move. Alakazam was distracted and now that I've had a chance to talk to it I feel obligated to tell you why," J implored.

"Then shoot," Prof. Kukui said with a clap of his hands.

"You see, during my travels with Sun, some of the worlds I've come across have been rather . . . well dangerous. As such my psychic types have developed a habit of always scanning their surroundings whenever they are sent out of their poké balls. Apparently," J swallowed before proceeding in a rush, "Apparently Alakazam in his mega state noticed that another psychic type has been tampering with Ash's memories. She pulled back immediately but in my experience pokémon who are willing to tamper with someone's memories to the extent she saw seldom have benevolent intentions."

"That's a pretty hefty accusation there," Prof. Kukui murmured, all cheer having left his voice, "You certainly know how to drop a bombshell. Are you absolutely certain about this?"

"Yes I am. Please just look into it, get him checked by a doctor or something. It could be nothing but Ash is such a nice person and it would be tragic if a malevolent pokémon decided to turn him into a vegetable," beseeched J.

"I'll get him checked by the local doctor but I'll have to contact his mother before he can have a psychic medical scan. If you're pulling my leg then you will be having a nice little chat to officer Jenny in the morning, ok," Prof. Kukui replied.

"Yes, of course, thankyou. I'll, uh, be going then," said J as he waved goodbye and left for the pokémon centre.

Kukui sighed and went to look up the local doctor's number. He'd have to ring the after hours clinic and then if the doctor found something and only if the doctor found something with the cursory handheld scanner, would he contact Delia to ask for permission for the invasive and expensive procedure of having ones memories and personality checked and restored by a team of medically trained psychic pokémon at the hospital. Even then it wouldn't even be possible to get Ash into hospital until the next morning due to the small peaceful nature of Melemele Island. Dear Arceus, he hoped this was a false alarm. Delia would yell his ears off if she found out that he had allowed her son to experience psychic tampering even if the event had occurred before Ash stepped foot in Alola.

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Later that night Professor Kukui sat in the dark at his desk, typing up a report of the day's events. On the desk lay his somewhat muted mobile, which was currently mid call to Delia Ketchum. She was now going into her second hour of yelling at him. It was demoralising and she had every right to be upset but it wasn't his fault. While the doctor couldn't tell what changes had been made, his superficial scan with the psychic reading wand had told them that the tampering had gone back five years. Five YEARS. Ash would have been twelve at the time this started. The poor kid had gone straight to bed after the appointment, skipping his dinner in clear depression.

Out of ten the doctor had rated the severity at a four. Zero being nothing and ten being a vegetable. Ash had initially been relieved at the low number until the man had explained that five was a distinct personality change and four sat right below that with enough memory change to potentially erase entire people from his memory. People that his sub conscious had classified as very important. For Ash the afternoon had been nothing but downs one after another but for Kukui there was a small silver lining: Kanto was currently experiencing a hurricane that had grounded all air traffic and prevented Delia from yelling at him in person.


	2. Chapter 2: Mewtwo Awakens

Thankyou for reading my story this far. The 'prologue phase' won't really be complete until the end of chapter 3 so please bear with it until then.

Three days and this story has over 250 views and my first story has over a hundred. Is that normal?

I do not own pokémon as it belongs to The Pokémon Company, Game Freak and Nintendo. Long may they reign!

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Chapter 2: Mewtwo Awakens

He awoke. Something had tripped one of the psychic defences he had implanted in his charge. From this distance he couldn't tell who it was or why but he knew that it had been a broad spectrum scan and that the intruder had withdrawn the moment they had made contact. From this he could conclude that it had probably been an accident and that the perpetrator was probably more worried about him then he was about them. Of course that wasn't saying much considering who he was, there wasn't that much in the world he had to be worried about.

In the dark secluded depths of Cerulean Cave, Mewtwo stretched, gleaning what he could from Ash in his current position of Melemele Island. The boy was all right at this point in time but that could change if the culprit decided to inform him or cause any other problems. Normally he would be much closer to his charge, staying just over ten kilometres from him to be just outside the standard psychic sensory range and close enough to watch and see the world with the boy. Alola however was guarded by the Tapus and they had instantly decided they didn't like him, probably had something to do with the fact that they were technically considered guardian deities instead of legendary pokémon like himself.

With the barest trace of his psychic powers, he shot forward toward the entrance. Teleporting would have been faster but teleporting to a location he wasn't already familiar with was unwise. Besides, the Tapus terrain altering abilities messed with long range teleportation anyway. He would have to fly there which would take quite a few hours.

Shooting out into the open air above Cerulean City, he decided he'd spend the time reminiscing about how he had ended up in this position. It had been a while and a little self reflection wouldn't hurt. Everything had started after he had parted ways with Ash for the second time. He had left with the intent to travel the world and discover his purpose in life. Why had he been born and what his role in the world was. He had not expected to find it several weeks later in an untraveled remote area presented to him by Arceus himself.

That day he learnt about the chosen one and the role he would play in resolving the many, many world endangering problems that would happen in the years to come. So long as Arceus managed to stagger these events, the chosen one, who he ironically discovered to be Ash Ketchum, would come along and save everyone or just about everyone involved. He, with his intelligence and his exorbitant psychic abilities, was meant to be Ash's chaperone. While there were several other parties involved in keeping an eye on the chosen one, it would be his job to make sure Ash kept doing what he did best: traveling and saving the world. More specifically he was in charge of ensuring that no girl got to close and prevent or make Ash forget anything that could traumatise him for life.

The reason for this was simple. People that fall in love don't tend to travel. They settle down, buy a home and usually have children. They did not pursue criminal organisation or go head to head with rabid, civilisation destroying monsters. So, as he had no problems with Ash, he began his role with a great deal of pride and a general sense that, even though it was his job to ensure that Ash never found love, he could at least ensure that Ash lived a happy and fulfilled life in regards to everything else.

He had decided to take a conservative behind the scenes approach to things. After all, Ash's oblivious nature was a blessing and he had assumed he would not have too much in his role beyond applying several layers of complex hidden defences to ensure Ash's safety and help him monitor the boy. What he did not expect was the sheer number of girls over the years that were drawn to the boy's easy looks and kind personality. Now while Mewtwo was basically allowed to do anything he wanted so long as the end result was achieved, he still took a very conservative approach. So long as the girl kept her mouth shut, he would leave them alone . . . most of the time.

Ash had travelled a lot, met a lot of people and done a whole lot of things. But due to Mewtwo's oversight he didn't always recall things the way they had happened. Take his first target, Leaf, for example. The girl had grown up with Ash and Gary and had competed in the Kanto and Johto league with them. The Johto league hadn't happened yet at that point in time but given the choice of an egotistical brat and a brave kind boy, Leaf had obviously fallen in love with the brave kind boy. Unfortunately, due to the length of time they had known each other and the proximity of their home, Mewtwo had had to make Leaf forget about Ash and Gary completely (and vice versa for consistencies sake) and then 'suggested' to her parents that they move to Viridian city.

The only other girl that Ash was close to at the time was Misty, who was surprisingly the only girl that he had never had to tamper with. This was a relief to him as she was the only one that he had personally interacted with but the reasons for this were very simple. She was, at least after Johto, anchored to a gym and didn't really know how to express her feelings through flirting. So she had decided, on her own, that she would confess to Ash once she had managed to become a water master by joining the Elite Four.

Then the Johto league came and Ash met Macy who promptly developed a typical small girl crush on him. Mewtwo had done absolutely nothing about the encounter because Ash just wasn't interested, not to mention largely oblivious. After they parted ways however, he had promptly made her forget about her feelings for Ash, not because she was a threat, but because he personally found her annoying.

A small trip to Alto Mare turned out to be a mild nuisance as the local Latias had developed a crush on the boy and kissed Ash before he left. To make matters worse the psychic dragon had become aware of his role in particular and encapsulated all of Ash's memories relating to Alto Mare so that he couldn't erase the event without causing damage. Having Ash remember the kiss could have potentially increased the likelihood of future relationships. The action was nothing more then pointless stubbornness since the pokémon would never be able to have a relationship with a human. Still, it had been a learning experience since he realised he would have to keep an eye on irrational pokémon as well.

Ash then went to Hoenn and Mewtwo followed. He had decided that allowing Ash to keep a female traveling companion would reduce his workload since a boy already traveling with a girl was less enticing then a guy traveling alone. One of the others in charge of watching Ash arranged for Brock to tag along so that Ash and his new companion May didn't starve. The Hoenn region, while interesting to see, had been about as eventful as he'd been expecting.

Then his future sight had given him only a few moments warning before one of May's elite rivals, a girl named Lisia, confessed to Ash on national television. Due to the short timeframe he had to work with, he was forced to wipe her memories of him completely, changing her sentence from 'I love you Ash Ketchum' to 'I love my Altaria'. Afterwards he followed up by erasing her memories of Ash's group and vice versa so that there weren't any inconsistencies that could come up in conversation.

Towards the very end of his journey through Hoenn, Ash met a draconid girl named Zinnia who had rapidly developed strong feelings for him. While she was not the type to confess, she was involved in multiple vigilante operations against terrorist groups and the like. Her dangerous lifestyle had the risk of pulling Ash in all to easily for the sake of saving pokémon so their memories of each other had to go (same applied to his companions).

Returning to Kanto, Ash learned about the battle frontier and began to make steady headway. Anabel hadn't been a problem at first but when Ash had come back from Sinnoh she had decided to visit his hometown and confess. He had intercepted her midway and tried to erase her feelings. Obviously her psychic types had objected, so he had wiped her entire memory so they couldn't do a patch repair job, dropped her and her pokémon through a conveniently close dimensional rift and that was the end of that.

After the Kanto grand festival he decided that it was no longer safe for May to continue traveling with Ash so he purged her feeling for Ash and changed her decision from following Ash to Sinnoh and competing in that grand festival to following that green haired boy to Johto instead. Once Ash made landfall in Sinnoh, Pikachu promptly collected a new traveling companion for him named Dawn. He got rid of Angie by placing a placing a minor subconscious command to inherit her family day care like she originally planned instead of asking to travel with Ash.

During the Wallace cup he kept a close eye on May and ensured she promptly went back to Johto after it was over before her feelings could be rekindled. Next came Lyra, who was a simple matter of redirecting her feelings towards her traveling companion. The boy was rather bland so she would probably brake up with him in a month or two but once she left Sinnoh, she was no longer his problem. Following the rap up of events in the Sinnoh league conference, in which one of Arceus' own agents flattened Ash to prevent him from winning the cup, he had debated whether to allow Dawn another year with Ash. On the one hand he had allowed May two years but the bluenette was developing feeling much more quickly considering the three year age gap. (A/N: If Ash takes four years to reach Sinnoh, Dawn should technically be ten but a four year age gap is to much for me so I've bopped her age up by one year)

Ultimately some fashion designer had saved Dawn from her unknown fate by keeping her in Sinnoh while Ash went home for a quick rest. Unova had been an unmitigated disaster. Mewtwo had been forced not to wipe, but alter Ash's recollection of important events on three separate occasions. He blamed Ghetsis mostly but Zekrom, Reshiram and the Swords of Justice were also partially responsible. The region had started out as normal. Ash got two new companions and made lots of friends. Then the first incident happened: Reshiram, Zekrom and their respective trainers decided to declare war on each other over a giant stone sword that controlled dragon force.

While N and Ash did not meet directly, the boy did get quite involved with the other trainer, a girl named Hilda, as she tried to stop her pokémon from fighting. Her strong feelings, born from surviving a literal war zone together, had to be removed and Ash and his companions needed to forget the horrors they'd seen. Neither dragon had wanted to take the blame and had interfered with his altering of events, resulting in two different contradictory recollections of the same imaginary event. Fortunately none of the humans seemed to notice, as humans tend to only realise their memory has been tampered when someone asks them about the event in question. Obviously he had long since taken measures to prevent any travellers involved in legendary events from stupidly bringing them up in conversation afterwards so that wasn't going to happen.

The problem came from Hilda who didn't take well to the fact that Ash had forgotten all about her. He forgot N too but she wasn't bothered by that at the time. Zekrom, as her pokémon and the champion of ideals, sided with the principle of love and his current master. Rather than just her feelings, he had been forced to wipe both their memories of the event all together. Few creatures understand just how difficult to make a conceptual incarnation forget something important.

Down the track Ash visited Pokéstar Studios were he met Yancy. Mewtwo had done nothing about her impromptu crush because despite blushing at their goodbye she hadn't said anything. Then Dawn showed up again so he promptly purged her feelings and quietly waited for the metaphorical storm he could sense on the horizon. In hindsight he should have made more preparations. Ghetsis proved to be the worst team leader to date in his attempt to capture Kyurem and use it to suck out Reshiram's power. Opposing him was Ash, his companions, N and a new girl named Rosa and the Swords of Justice.

However none of the previous team leaders had dared arm their grunts with handguns and other automated weaponry. It seemed that Ghetsis had been stopped by a trainer during his last regional takeover scheme and decided to stop playing fair. Ash, being Ash, recklessly took a bullet for the girl, thereby cementing her feelings for him. After the incident, in which Ghetsis escaped, he had to show up in person for emergency damage control. His first response, after healing the injured, was to try and make Ash forget about the event. Even if he was unexpectedly resistant to the ordeal, any person who heard about it would inform the authorities who would in turn tell his mother who would justifiably pull the plug on his adventure.

Despite these glaring facts, the Swords of Justice had refused to allow him to erase the 'glorious bonds between true warriors'. Outnumbered six legendary pokémon to one, he had been forced to parley. Wiping the girls memories of the incident took her out of the equation and then they had to come up with an 'acceptable' cover up story, which was made easier when Kyurem volunteered to play villain. Then Reshiram surprised everyone by not only asking him to make N forget about the encounter but also to make N forget that he owned it. The pokémon's reasoning was to allow it to lure Ghetsis away from N and give him a chance to live a more normal life. He agreed and projected the new version of events, consisting of an encounter with the Swords of Justice and Kyurem, over the top of Ash and his companions' memories of the event. To dot the I's and cross the T's he went back and erased Yancy's memories of Ash and vice versa because she was close friends with Rosa.

Almost immediately after that was a nostalgic Team Rocket showdown. It was nice not being the focus of their efforts for once. But after their inevitable defeat he had to explain to a very stubborn Meloetta why it couldn't have a relationship with a human and why brainwashing the boy to overlook that 'small' detail was not an acceptable response. These irrational psychic types were giving him a bad reputation. Surely he wasn't the only one who could see these obvious rules of the world.

The third and final incident after the league had culminated in finally arresting Ghetsis and another encounter with N. He altered the severity of the event but had allowed Ash and N to remember everyone involved because Ghetsis was finally behind bars. When Ash left Unova, he purged Bianca's feelings out of pity after she had cried herself to sleep. Then he purged Iris's feelings and got rid of her as soon as they arrived back in Kanto because she had been useless in keeping girls away from Ash.

Kalos was a breath of fresh air. He got a mega stone; Serena was the perfect girl deterrent and the only other girl, Miette, was happy to wait until Serena had first try. Ash did his hero thing; Alain entered the league of his own accord, ensuring that no one had to do anything to stop Ash from winning. When Miette got impatient he casually purged her feeling with no strings attached and then all he had to do was carefully watch Serena and Ash part ways and he would be done. Sadly Hoopa chose that moment to try and 'play' with him and distracted him for the necessary minute needed for the girl to kiss Ash. Feeling vindictive at being foiled at the last moment, he made Ash and everyone around him forget about the kiss while altering Serena's memory so that she believed Ash rejected her.

As Mewtwo saw Alola up ahead, he wondered in a detached fashion whether the girl had gotten over her immediate mental breakdown. Unlike Bianca, Serena's feelings had been embedded for too long to be negated by anything less then a complete mind wipe. So not wanting to ruin the girl's life, he had been a little creative with his solution. She got to keep 99.99% of her memories and would stay away from Ash for the rest of her life.

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Arriving at Melemele Island well after dark and locating Ash, Mewtwo teleported into the chosen ones room as he slept and probed into his mind to assess the situation. Tapu Koko was already aware of his presence but shouldn't do anything as long as he kept his trip brief. Apparently Prof. Kukui had taken him to see the doctor for unknown reasons and Mewtwo's adjustments had been detected. Fortunately they hadn't been able to do anything about it in the time window they had and now they would never know.

Wiping the doctor's appointment and the discovery from Ash's memory, he teleported over to the professor to extract more information out of him. The man was asleep at his desk with a half drunk coffee and his computer displaying a report of what happened. He checked the man's memory, wiped it, checked the phone records, wiped those too and then deleted the report about the day's events. Teleporting to the hospital, medical clinic and the doctor's residence, he systematically erased all records of Ash's condition.

Then he teleported to the pokémon centre room were the established cause of his day's problems was located. To his mild surprise, even though it was now after midnight in Alola, the boy was awake. As he already knew, the trainer was a foreign body that came another universe. While he was no expert he'd say the deviation in their basic rule sets was about one millionth, well below the 0.1% that would have caused the boy to die the moment he came through the ultra wormhole.

Sitting one his bed imitating his alakazam's meditative position beside him and a drifblim floating above floating above, J stared directly at Mewtwo with not fear but annoyance. Clearly the boy had been waiting for him and the malevolent presence of a fifth unseen occupant gave him pause. A split second check was enough to tell that the boys mind was fortified beyond normal human means. Not remotely a threat or obstacle but enough to allow his pokémon to interfere.

"I wasn't expecting the culprit to be a Mewtwo. I feel like I've wasted my time now," J greeted cynically, "So, mind telling me what beedrill nest I accidentally stuck my nose into this time?"

Arceus had briefed Mewtwo on what to do if he ran into a jumper. Based on his attitude it would probably be easy to negotiate and get him to leave by the next morning.

 _"I am indeed Mewtwo,"_ projected the legendary telepathically, _"As to your question, I am the chaperone of the Chosen One Ash. You apparently noticed and informed his guardian about the defences I put in place to protect him. While I appreciate your concern, it has required me to clean up the incident."_

"Fuuudge, I can't believe I just stepped on the toe's of the ruling big shots. Let me guess, you want me to pretend this never happened," replied J in tired frustration.

 _"How very astute of you. Of course it would be even more preferable if you just left,"_ projected Mewtwo in a pleased tone.

"Sorry, can't do that just yet. Portals between internal dimensional layers are one thing but portals between universes put a lot more strain on the area in question. I wouldn't want to leave and accidently cause a space-time tear to destroy the whole island. The area should settle down within about a week so I'll be out of your hair then. In the mean time I'll keep my mouth shut as long as you leave me alone. Normally I keep a very low profile but as you are probably aware they spotted me right as I came out so my cover was blown," yawned J.

 _"Completely understandable,"_ mused Mewtwo, _"Of course even though I won't be physically here, know that I will be keeping a very close eye on you until you leave."_

The trainer nodded and started making preparations to go to bed so without anything more to add, Mewtwo left. Double checking on the status of Ash's three female classmates he then left Alolan airspace and teleported straight to Pallet Town. It was very late now so he was tired from a days flying and people editing. So, already knowing Delia quite well for work purposes, he checked her phone records, found only the one call to Alola and wiped it. She didn't own a diary or a computer outside of the one strictly for restaurant transactions and was currently asleep so he lazily isolated the memories since Kukui's phone call and wiped them without checking their contents.

After that the Legendary Psychic Pokémon left for Cerulean Cave. Had he paid more attention, had he bothered to check her memories before wiping them, he would have noticed that, while she did not own a diary, she did own a personal planner. So the next morning, when Mewtwo was already monitoring J for early morning activity, she got up and checked her personal planner for the day's events. What she found to her complete shock was her own handwriting detailing a very clear message to herself about Ash. She couldn't reach the phone fast enough.


	3. Chapter 3: The Butterfree Effect

Hello readers, I would like to answer a few questions that have been asked and some that haven't been asked yet. First is who exactly will be included in the harem. As I stated in my other story I believe the future is undecided so I haven't got a definitive list but most of the girls mentioned should be included. The pokémon will not be. That was just to elaborate on some of the more annoying aspects of Mewtwo's job.

I've also been asked why Marina/Kris and Moon were not included. Marina/Kris has already been shown in the anime with her male counterpart so she's already taken. Moon is supposed to be eleven at game start, which makes the age gap between her and Ash too large. Add on the fact that Lana, Kiawe and Mallow are students in the anime, not Trial Captains and we can safely conclude that Sun and/or Moon haven't even moved to Alola yet.

Timeline wise, consider these events to diverge after the trip to Kanto and finding Nebby but before it's abduction by Faba.

Lastly, a few people have expressed confusion at the comedy tag. I don't want this to be a dark story and have a bit of an odd sense of humour along the lines of Person of Interest's 'because when I do it in the park, people look at me funny'. (Look it up if you're not familiar with it because it's a good show.) These stories are meant for me to help understand potential audiences and learn my strengths etc. If I get to chapter 10 or so and people still don't really think it fits in the comedy genre then I'll be happy to change the tag but I want to have a try first.

I do not own pokémon as it belongs to The Pokémon Company, Game Freak and Nintendo. Long may they reign!

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Chapter 3: The Butterfly Effect has Nothing on The Butterfree Effect

As Delia rushed to the phone in a mad panic to contact Ash's former traveling companions, her reasoning was twofold. One, it was just common decency to inform them that they may have been affected by being close to her son. And two, the more people who knew about it, the harder it would be for the mystery perpetrator to cover things up again. She was quite certain that her personal message surviving was nothing short of a fluke.

Brock and Misty were first and both were quiet happy to get themselves checked out. They briefly mentioned that league regulations stated that they had to follow through on such warnings and while they did recall meeting a psychic type on their journey that was capable of such feats, they were both convinced that 'He' wouldn't do something like that. She had gotten cross with them when they refused to mention the name of the pokémon but she couldn't do anything about that now.

She didn't have the contact information for most of Ash's other traveling companions but those she did not have personally had parents who she chatted to on a semi regular basis. So she called the Maples next (I know that's not official but it's the general fan consensus so that's what I'm going with.). They were very sceptical at first but became very worried once Max joined in and mentioned that May had done a complete 180 at the end of Kanto by following Drew to Johto rather than following Ash to Sinnoh like she had previously discussed with him. The phone call ended with Caroline trying to get in touch with May while Norman made arrangements to travel to Lilycove City where May was currently making her second attempt at the Hoenn grand festival.

Johanna didn't have any problems believing her, preferring to err on the side of caution but called back later in tears because Dawn hadn't believed her and wanted to know what to do. Before that second call, Delia had managed to reach Cilan and Iris on their Xtransceivers. Cilan mentioned the same gym protocol and Iris agreed to get herself checked just to prove that no psychic type would have gotten the better of her dragons.

As she finished with those calls, she congratulated herself on her progress and looked up the numbers for Grace and Meyer since she hadn't spoken to either of them in a while.

"Hello Grace, it's me Delia, I was wondering if I could talk to you for a moment," she greeted in a serious but friendly tone.

"You have a lot of nerve calling after your son trampled on my daughters heart," came Grace's stony reply.

"Oh dear, it seems that it's happened to Serena too," sighed Delia sympathetically.

Carefully, she explained what she had discovered and why she was calling but Grace seemed to be about as believing and receptive as a dugtrio was too the idea that being uprooted was good for it. Fortunately Serena, who had apparently come home suffering from depression, caught the end half of her explanation and interrupted her mothers attempt to hang up. Latching on to the information like a lifeline, Serena extracted every bit of information she could out of Delia, including the part were Ash still thought they were friends. Serena had then insisted that her mother take her to the hospital for a deep psychic restorative scan.

Meyer was thankfully easier to convince, the only peculiar thing about that phone call was him mentioning 'This sounds like a job for Blaziken Mask' but she just put that down to the eccentricities of being a single father. After that she packed a few things and went straight to Prof. Oaks to inform him of the situation and to demand that he give or make her something to shield her from psychic influence.

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Slightly later that morning in a Saffron city high-rise building, six of the seven Frontier Brains were having an emergency meeting with Scott, the owner of the battle Frontier. The door to the meeting room opened and Anabel strolled in wearing a black suit and a long ponytail (her in game Alola appearance).

"Sorry I'm late everyone. For some reason I didn't get the message about the meeting and found out when I checked Tucker's blog," Anabel chirped as she sat down in a vacant chair at the long table. Several people winced.

"Tucker, what have I told you about putting confidential information online," grumbled Brandon.

"Is something wrong?" queried Anabel with concern as everyone (bar Brandon and Lucy) continued to look uncomfortable.

"Um Anabel, the reason you didn't get the memo was because you weren't supposed to come," brokered Scott, "Now don't panic, were not planning on firing you or anything. This meeting is just about some topics that might make you uncomfortable."

"Oh, you're not excluding me because I now work part time with the International Police now right? I do hope this meeting isn't about tax evasion or something legally dubious," Anabel questioned suspiciously.

More uncomfortable looks passed around the table before Lucy burst out, "For goodness sake! Just tell the girl already!"

When no one volunteered, Lucy huffed and slid the file in front of her across the table to Anabel. Scott and Tucker objected but she had already grabbed it and started reading.

 _Frontier Brain candidate observation special report_

 _Regarding: Ash Ketchum_

 _Yesterday evening at XX:30pm Alolan time, Ash's acting legal guardian Prof. Kukui submitted Ash Ketchum for a medical check up at an after hours clinic citing concerns of psychic tampering. Preliminary tests returned positive with a scale of 4 and a deep psychic restorative scan were scheduled for the next day. Within eight hours of this event all medical records were deleted and no follow up has been made by any party since._

 _End Report._

Anabel stared wide-eyed at the report in her hands.

"You were going to keep this from me," she whispered then yelled, "AFTER Everything I've been through, you were going to keep this from me!"

"Anabel please calm down," said Scott, "After what happened to you the first time you encountered Mewtwo, none of us wanted to risk you doing something reckless and ending up in an even worse predicament."

"I know damn well what happened to me! Six months in ultra space without any memories, then Looker found me on a beach and took me in to the International Police where you tracked me down and offered to pay for the expensive rehab! I spent months wondering what I had done to deserve being made to forget everything, each painful monthly session giving me back another year of my life! When I finally learnt the reason, when I finally remembered the cause of my suffering and the reason why that bastard did it. NO ONE would do anything about it," yelled Anabel as she rose to her feet and slammed the report on the table, "All any of you care about is keeping me away from Ash. It's not the right time, the doctors tell me! We're still investigating, the International Police tell me! We don't want to put you at risk, you tell me!"

"All of you seem to care so much about me," Anabel murmured, her fists trembling as she began to cry, "but none of you seem to care about Ash. Someone finally caught HIM in the act and informed someone who would actually do something about it. This was our opportunity to finally act but because none of you wanted to do something and stay hidden, Mewtwo has probably gone and killed the whistle blower. I've been patient. I've gone with Looker to investigate ancient texts about the chosen one. I've caught new pokémon and trained SO hard to be ready for this moment and none of you were even going to tell me!

What part don't you get? They're using him and they're going to keep using him until he brakes. Ash never asked for any of this; what about Ash's happiness. All these powerful pokémon are holding him by a leash he can't even see. He's nothing more than a cog to them. Why won't you let me help him?"

"I know you don't want to hear it Anabel but if we fought at this point in time, we'd still lose and badly at that," lectured Brandon, "Everyone who has been briefed about the situation knows that there will only be one shot at this."

Before Anabel could retort, Noland's phone rang. Glad for an excuse to avert the conversation he answered, "Hello, Noland speaking."

"Good morning, I'm Prof. Oak, we've spoken before," greeted the Professor.

"Just a moment I'm at a meeting so I'll put you on speaker. What can I do for you Professor," asked Norman.

"I was wondering if I could use some of your manufacturing resources," started Prof. Oak, "You see, Delia stopped by this morning, she's the mother of one of your prior challengers, Ash Ketchum, anyway the thing is we've run into a bit of a situation and I was hoping to use those facilities of yours and my extensive research to create a psychic canceler that's small enough to wear. I know that no ones ever been able to make one before but I'm quite confident that with your engineering know how and building materials and my expertise on pokémon we should be able to come up with a working prototype by sundown."

Noland paled as Prof. Oak explained this but before he had the chance to decline, Anabel's Espeon bounced across the table, swiped the phone and returned it to her.

"Prof. Oak, I'm Salon Maiden Anabel," She stated as she ducked out of arms reach of the other Frontier Brains, "I'll be right over there to assist you and of course Noland would love to help you."

"Brandon, stop her," Scott cried as Anabel tossed the phone back and darted for the door.

In a flash of light, Registeel appeared and wrapped its long fingers around Anabel's torso. Espeon, like all of Anabel's older pokémon, reacted badly to a foreign pokémon touching its master and used psychic to rip back Registeel's fingers and send the iron golem cartwheeling across the room. By the time the dust cleared Anabel and her pokémon were long gone.

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Several hours later, Lilycove City, Hoenn

Norman sat in the private hospital room after the deep psychic restorative scan, hugging his sobbing daughter as she cried her eyes out.

"How could anyone do that to another person," wailed May, "T-to just smother their most important feelings and make them f-forget their friends like it's nothing. It just doesn't make any sense."

"It's alright, I'm here now and your mother and brother are supporting us too. We'll resolve this together," soothed Norman.

"Daddy, I'm scared. What happens if that pokémon comes back? What if it makes me forget Ash this time?" May mumbled.

"This area of the hospital is completely insulated from outside psychic types so it won't be able to find us here. On top of that, I'll be right here to stop it if it does come back. I won't let anyone hurt my precious daughter," Norman reassured her.

"Thanks dad," May sniffled as she looked up at him, "When the hospital is ready to discharge me, can we go see Ash?"

"Of course honey, in fact I'll call right now to ask for some time off work," answered Norman as he pulled out his phone.

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Ever Grande City, Hoenn

As Wallace sat in his office at league headquarters doing paperwork, he was surprised when his receptionist called saying that Norman wanted to talk to him. Surmising that he could do with a brake from the monotony, he told his receptionist to put the call through and rotated his swivel chair so he could recline and put his feet up on a padded stool hidden behind his desk. Norman was always a pleasure to talk to and hardly complained about regulations like Roxanne wanting to ban gum-chewing trainers from her gym or Brawly trying to create nation wide Mantine surfing competitions.

"Norman, how are you? I heard your daughter May won her third ribbon last week and will be competing in tomorrows Lilycove City contest. You must be very proud," chatted Wallace casually.

"Funny you should mention May," replied Norman, his voice carrying an unnatural seriousness, "She's just had a pretty serious accident and I will be needing to take some time of work until my family can sought things out."

"Oh my, tell me what happened," gasped Wallace.

"A friend of the family called with concerns that some of May's former traveling companions had their memories tampered with and wanted us to check May. I'm with her now that the doctors have finished the test and she's understandably upset about the whole ordeal," Norman answered.

Wallace swallowed nervously before continuing in his normal smooth flawless voice, "That's terrible, do tell her I send my condolences. Does she know who was responsible for the memory alteration?"

He heard the phone move and Norman's muffled voice ask his daughter to which he got an inaudible mumble in reply.

"Sorry, she says it happened right before she went to bed but she saw no one," said Norman, "You wouldn't happen to know of any psychic pokémon strong enough and smart enough to do complex memory alteration in a matter of moments?"

Wallace let out a defeated sigh, "Can't say that I do unfortunately. Alakazam and gardevoir are the most obvious culprits but even they can't do such things without line of sight and not at the speeds you describe. I'm sorry Norman but I'm as stumped as you are. What I can do is give you two months off. People won't be happy about it since your one of the top eight gyms that gets printed in all the handbooks but it's the least I can do. I might as well give the admin staff that pay raise that they've been asking for while I'm at it. You're one of the few ace gym leaders that understands the word restraint so you're very popular amongst trainers."

"Thanks Wallace, I'll be sure to send you a gift basket," said Norman before he ended the call.

Letting out an exhausted sigh, Wallace turned back to his desk and saw his niece frozen in the open doorway wide eyed with her hand raised, about to knock on the door. "Fiddlesticks," he moaned.

She bolted.

"Lisia, get back here," he shouted as he got up to pursue her, "You know you can't talk to May or Ash. The only reason we found out about your memory alteration in the first place was because it was discovered by the security detail at my Tenth Grand Festival victory celebration party!"

Lisia zipped through the corridors heading for the entrance as he pursued. She called over her shoulder, "If they actually remember me then I can finally talk to them. I'm tired of watching Ash from afar and even though May is still my junior in coordinating, she was still one of my closest friends."

"Your parents and I are aware of this but despite your avid protests, they still feel that it is too dangerous for you to interact with Ash and his associates until the culprit is caught," Wallace called back, "I understand that Ash was your first crush but this is ridiculous. You only knew him for a few short months and it's been years since you regained your memories of him. Why can't you go on a date with any of the other perfectly acceptable young men your age? While I personally don't mind the boys character, your parents believe that his frequent encounters with aggressive legendary pokémon and his tendency to try and bring down every crime syndicate he comes across makes him an unsuitable person for you to have a relationship with."

"I don't care!" shouted Lisia as she exited the front doors of the League and released her Altaria, "Guys who are okay with and respect contests enough to voluntarily participate in them don't grow on trees. All the ones I've met since Ash either failed that criteria or spent more time on their hair than I do. Considering I'm an Idol, that says a lot about their character."

"The mystery pokémon that altered your memories did it in the middle of one of your concerts, WHILE you were surrounded by a full security detail, a dozen cameras and several thousand witnesses who didn't notice a thing. Why can't you grasp just how serious this threat is," Wallace pleaded, but it was no use as she was already air born. He cursed the fact that he didn't have his Gyarados on him and went back inside whimpering, "My sister is going to kill me when she finds out about this."

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Mulberry City, Kanto

In the pokémon centre, Dawn packed the last of her things as Piplup munched on some food on the bed.

"Can you believe her Piplup," complained Dawn, "I can't believe that after being a trainer and coordinator for this long, Mum doesn't think I can take care of myself. Doesn't she think I'd realise if there was a big gaping hole in my memory?"

Piplup recalled her spontaneously accepting Cynthia's invitation to go all the way to Unova for a battle tournament, not a contest, but a battle tournament. It was fairly obvious even to him that she had gone to see Ash and based on her behaviour, Piplup would have bet a years worth of poké food that she was going to confess. But for some reason she never went through with it and the frequency with which she mentioned Ash in conversation since then had dropped to almost nothing. Buuut unfortunately he couldn't convey such complex conversation topics to her so he just sat there innocently eating his second helping of lunch.

"After all, I have you and Mamoswine and everybody else to protect me from a psychic type and none of you have ever ended up with injuries you don't recall getting so that means you've never had to fight off a mind wiping pokémon," Dawn ranted as she stuffed the last item of clothing into her bag with more force than necessary, "And then I find out she's telling me to go to hospital because someone else told her I might be affected just because their child is. Talk about not having faith in your own daughter yet believing someone else's far-fetched story. Ok, so maybe I shouldn't have cut her off before she told me who it was that told her and maybe it was childish to block her calls to my pokégear but she needs to learn what's believable and what isn't. You agree with me, don't you Piplup?"

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Iris punched her left fist into the hospital wall. How could she have been played so easily? That Mewtwo must have been laughing his face off at how easy it had been. She was a dragon tamer dammit.

"You know, if your fist goes any deeper into that wall, your going to break your Xtransceiver," said Cilan from her wrist, "Then we wouldn't be able to have this lovely conversation."

"Not helping, Cilan," she growled.

"I understand that your mad, I am too," he responded in his way too chipper voice, "but taking it out on that poor wall is just bad sportsmanship. Besides, at least it's daylight in Japan. I had to go to the hospital in the middle of the night and you don't see me punching any holes in the wall."

Iris just growled at him again. The lack of Axew wasn't helping soothe her nerves. After the procedure a nurse had asked her to hand over her pokémon so they could be checked and treated as well.

"I get the feeling your wounded pride isn't the main thing you're upset about," said Cilan, "Could it be that your upset because we met and were made to forget about three different girls while Mewtwo didn't see fit to erase your feelings until after we arrived in Kanto?"

Iris's right fist slammed into the wall. He had hit the nail on the head. Why had Mewtwo erased their feelings and memories immediately while he left her feelings intact for so long. Did he not think her love was good enough to warrant acting? That she wasn't attractive enough for Ash notice her? It made her blood boil just thinking about it.

"I see," Cilan commented, "Well, regardless of how mad you might be, we still have an obligation to contact the girls that showed an interest in Ash during his trip through Unova and inform them of what has been happening."

"Do we have too," Iris whined. Even if it was the right thing to do, she didn't like the idea getting in touch with girls that also liked Ash and persuading them to remember him. She wasn't the jealous type by a long shot but the idea still twanged uncomfortably at her heart.

"Since I'm a gym leader I'll be in a better position to do the informing," replied Cilan, "but that still leaves the issue of how to contact Ash without alerting Mewtwo. I don't think most of the other people are aware of who exactly is responsible for these events so it's our duty, as the only people to have run into two of them, to inform everyone else of exactly what a mewtwo is capable of. I want you to handle that job while we try to coordinate how to go about this. Can you do that?"

"Fine," she grumbled. To think her day had started out so perfectly too.

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Ring, ring, ring . . . ring, ring, ring.

"Hello, this is the Solaceon Town Day Care. We are not currently available to answer your call. If you would like to book a time frame for us to look after your pokémon or would like to inquire about what facilities we have available for your pokémon, please visit our website. If you would like to talk to us directly, please leave a message after the beep and we will get back to you as soon as possible."

BEEP

"Good evening, this is Prof. Rowan calling. I've just been speaking to one of my colleague in Kanto about a recent string of psychic memory tampering and it occurred to me that your daughter Angie might be one of the people affected," said Prof. Rowan, "If you could call me, or better yet if you could take her in to see the doctor and then tell me the results, it would help us get to the bottom of this debacle. Thank you for your cooperation."

BEEP

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Vaniville Town, Kalos

Serena lay on a hospital bed while her mother was outside her room abusing airport staff on the phone. Despite everything that had happened the last few months, things were finally starting to look up. Slightly giddy with herself, she recalled the last time she had spoken to Ash. The REAL last time she had spoken to Ash. When she had kissed him he had blushed and stuttered and made a real fool of himself. It was adorable so she giggled and told him that she would see him soon. They parted ways and she couldn't contain her smile. Then it happened less than a minute after the most magical moment of her life, almost as soon as she was out of Ash's line of sight she supposed. Her whole world had been ripped out from underneath her and replaced with that terrible awful lie that had immediately sucked all the warmth and colour out of her world.

Vaguely she wondered what Ash was doing right now. Kalos was almost directly opposite Alola so while the sun would be rising in a few hours here, it would soon be setting over there. She quickly dismissed the idea of Ash and her watching the sunset together on one of Alola's pristine white beaches. Now wasn't the time to think about that. Something big was happening around Ash again and she had to be ready. She was under no delusions that the powerful psychic type that was the culprit wouldn't think twice about destroying her team in a battle. That meant she needed allies. But who could she call upon to take on a probable legendary pokémon? Maybe Alain? Scratch that, the mega specialist was uncooperative and she had no way of persuading him. Definitely Ash's Greninja and his Goodra if she could find them. Who else could she think of?

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In Alola J lay back against his Solgaleo who glared at the pint size purple puffball devour his bowl of specially made pokémon food.

"You know Nebby your lucky you're a guy," said J conversationally as he watched Ash play with his three female classmates at the beach shore, "If you were a girl you'd be in a quick ball, I'd be halfway around the world and no one here would be any the wiser about the fact that they left a wild baby legendary unattended and uncaught. But you're a boy so I'll just have to hope Ash is cluey enough to catch you before you evolve and become nigh invincible."

Nebby squealed in clueless delight, oblivious to the trials that would soon be upon Alola and the world.


	4. Chapter 4: When Forces Gather

Hello readers, I apologies for the delay which was partly due to lack of energy and partly due to me preparing some bonus material which I will release at a later point but wanted to have ready in advance. Since the date is almost here I might as well say Merry Christmas! For those of you who do not celebrate Christmas for religious reasons, take comfort in the fact that this holiday is the biggest one of the year not because of its' historical value but because a fat man in a red suit breaks into everyone's houses and is applauded for doing so. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, please be Merry anyway because it is a great time of the year.

Before the chapter starts I would like to share several pokémon theories with you to see whether they have any validity or are just my wishful thinking and random tangents. I have no way to prove any of these and it is very likely that the first one, even if it is true, will never be officially acknowledged.

UB theory 1  
Nihilego is the poison rock ultra beast and very famous for its' ability to drive its' victims permanently psychotic. However from watching interactions in the game and the limited amount I know from YouTube AMVs, (I lack a legal, and therefore virus free, way of watching the anime directly) I have noticed a disturbing pattern. In the sun & moon games a Nihilego attacks Guzma and he recounts how it took complete control of his body. He does not mention using his pokémon to break free and appears very much sane in all his subsequent appearances which indicates that it didn't inject its' legendary venom. From this I can conclude that it probably let him go. Nihilego attack the player while they are with Lillie and seem to respond on mass to Lusamine in an unnatural way for wild pokémon.

The main thing I can distinguish between these different reactions is that Guzma is male and Lusamine and Lillie (who is next to the protagonist when they attack) are both obviously female. In the anime when Faba opened an ultra wormhole the first time and a nihilego came through, it went straight for Lillie and completely ignored Faba (who should have been closer). During the second time a more aggressive nihilego batted Faba and any male pokémon aside and then homed in on Lillie and Lusamine. Now I don't know about you but from all my hours of watching nature documentaries and knowledge about biology only leaves one explanation for why a creature would want one gender over another: Something to do with reproduction.

I may be completely wrong and I don't think Nintendo would ever consider confirming it but I think the theory has a lot of merit and I wanted to see what everyone else thought. It could be something as simple as needing certain pheromones that their bodies can't naturally produce or could be the full blown tentacle monster and/or parasite egg impregnation. We will probably never know for certain but the way the nihilego reacted to Lusamine in the game certainly reminded me of drone insects taking orders from a (future?) queen.

UB theory 2  
Guzzlord is a dark dragon ultra beast and the only one from sun & moon that didn't have its' natural habitat shown in ultra sun & ultra moon. I would like to take a crack at guessing this and certain aspects of its' biology by approximating off its' appearance. This ultra beast apparently never stops eating, never produces any waste products and is apparently a common organism in its' natural habitat. This in my mind is a contradiction because no planet can sustain life forms that eat everything none stop, convert everything to energy and only return things to the environment when they die. The planet would simply disappear.

From this I have to conclude that since Guzzlord can't open it's own ultra wormholes and gets stuck and panics like the rest of the ultra beasts when it falls through them, there must be something in its' natural environment that can satisfy its' appetite for some time. Looking at that giant mouth it's pretty obvious that it eats a lot and from the dark type it might actually be a subterranean creature. So if I combine these facts (and the part that it knows several ground moves but not dig) I can get a picture of something that tunnels through the ground by eating everything in front of it.

Why does it do this? Perhaps most of the food it eats doesn't actually nourish it that much and it consumes what is before it deep underground to extract a super heavy mineral of some kind. Stories do have dragons collecting and occasionally eating gems and metal and I think it could get energy from fission (because if it was fusion then it would just suck up hydrogen all day long).

Taking a look at the rest of the body, we can see that it is quite round and slow moving. This shape would help for turning in a narrow tunnel and the lack of side on defence capability indicates that it is not in an environment where predators could attack from the side. In a tunnel whatever it find in front of it is either food or combatable with its' jaws and pincers while behind it is a mace tail. Anything that tunnelled underneath it would be crushed by its' falling weight and the large horns above it would deter other guzzlord from attempting to crush it from above.

The small arms at the top of Guzzlord's body seem fairly useless for combat but could be used to grab if a trinket it found and wanted to collect rather than eat. However I think they would mostly be used for grooming and/or cleaning fallen dirt off the top of its' body. The small 'head' with eyes would allow Guzzlord to take a look above ground (and possibly breath) without fully exposing its' body to potential threats. The arms would also be more useful defending against threats in this particular scenario.

The last thing I would like to point out about Guzzlord is that it learns belch. If it digests things with fission then most of what it eats would be broken down again and again until only simple gasses are left. These could be expelled along with any toxins it doesn't like and would be Guzzlord's none obvious by-products.

Cosmoem Theory (Less theory, more pointing out obvious fact)  
Everyone makes such a fuss about how people can carry around this pokémon when it is so heavy. What I think everyone forgets is that the pokédex lists its' mass, not its' weight (Despite saying weight for the people who are unfamiliar with the scientific distinction). This pokémon clearly floats; therefore it has a weight (AKA downward gravitational pull) of zero and can be pushed around by a Joltik.

Evolution level theory  
Last theory before the story. In the games pokémon are often encountered that are either way above or below the point at which they should have evolved. Evolution is considered by most fans to be induced when a certain level of strength is obtained and then combined with willpower or a perceived need or want to do so. In the wild I think most pokémon would want to evolve sooner rather than later to avoid being eaten.

Evolution is also an indicator of the lifecycle of the pokémon and should also take a fair few calories to do. So when a pokémon is over the level that it should have evolved at it is probably malnourished and will evolve once it gets a proper diet (probably from a trainer that catches it). When a pokémon evolves earlier than the level it should then I believe that either that pokémon was unusually weak or lived a lifestyle where strength wasn't necessary. The pokémon grows older and eventually biology kicks in and it evolves to its' adult form without the necessary level because it is well past its' youthful years and can't stay a baby/teenager.

I can't explain why owned pokémon don't evolve when they should but thanks for reading the theories (for those of you who didn't skip my extra long authors note) and do tell me what you think of their validity. If you want to share them on a chat room, please tell people where you read it. I don't really need credit but having people intentionally claim other people's ideas as their own leaves a bad taste in my mouth so have some courtesy or tell me if you saw a dated post somewhere that was smart enough to come up with these theories before me.

I do not own pokémon as it belongs to The Pokémon Company, Game Freak and Nintendo. Long may they reign!

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Chapter 4: When Forces Gather

In Pallet town at Oak's Lab, Leaf Green had had a long, stressful and emotional day. It has started after midday when her parents had called and frantically demanded she fly home (across regions) and see the family doctor. Country parents, country lifestyle she had supposed because they had been adamant that she had to come back to Viridian City and couldn't just go to a doctor at her then current location. She had told them they were being unreasonable especially after they refused to tell her why they thought she needed medical attention. Much arguing had ensued and she eventually managed to extract out of them that Prof. Oak, the man who had given her a starter, had called them and alerted them to an urgent matter concerning the families health.

So begrudgingly she had obliged her frantic mother and used her Pidgeot to fly across Japan to Viridian. When she arrived, her mother ushered her to the private practice and had come in with her to the prearranged medical appointment. She had then promptly freaked out when the doctor immediately pulled out the notorious 'cursory handheld psychic scanning rod TM' that was the thing of horror movies involving psychic types the world over. After a few minutes getting calmed down by her mother, she had sat still enough for the doctor to wave the thing repeatedly around her head and had her worst fears confirmed. A 4, a bloody freaking FOUR. Now in tears, Leaf had been escorted by the doctor and her mother to the main hospital for a deep psychic restorative scan or DPRS for short.

They didn't tell her much of what was going on so as to keep confusion to a minimum but they had been willing to tell her that Prof. Oak had contacted them since they used to live in Pallet Town after he had discovered his grandson, who she had never met (Oh Arceus she hoped that was actually the case), was a victim of a powerful psychic pokémon. Her parents had apparently both tested positive and after receiving the (basically mandatory) treatment they had rushed to get in contact with her. Apparently the Professor had specifically arranged for her to have a special version of the treatment that couldn't normally be ordered because of the suspected large volume of altered memories. For reasons they couldn't/wouldn't tell her at the time the normal safety threshold of one year of memories per month couldn't be obliged by due to life and death urgency.

The procedure couldn't use anaesthetic due to needing a minimum level of brain activity and was incredibly painful but ultimately she thought it was absolutely worth every second of pain. Sure the results of the accelerated version of the procedure left her temporarily crippled after experiencing years of enhanced memories that caused her mind to adjust to a body that was way to small for her. However what she gained was priceless. Someone had stolen her entire childhood in Pallet Town. All her memories of playing with Ash and Gary (all her memories of them period) had been replaced with a lonely childhood where all the kids in town were way to old or young to play with. She and her parents had thought that was why they had eventually moved to Viridian City so that she was more likely to visit home rather than getting depressed and avoiding it like the plague. The truth was that they had all been manipulated to keep her away from Ash. Oh Ash, what trouble had you gotten yourself into this time.

So, after all that, here she was sitting in a wheelchair with her parents and Ash's mother Delia Ketchum in Oak's lab. They were all catching up on lost time and looking through various photo albums that had 'mysteriously' remained untouched for five years as well as ones with photos from her and Ash's separate journeys. She wanted to know everything Ash had been up to since they had been forced to part. Now that she knew it was there, his absence was a gaping aching hole in her life. She missed him so much and would make the pokémon responsible for stealing her love away from her pay dearly. Both for robbing her of her feelings and for destroying her childhood memories.

At least Ash looked happy in all the pictures and had travelled a lot more than her. Most trainers tended to stick to their first region or circulate through a few close by and train to re-enter the League and win. Starting over, or just competing in new Leagues with unfamiliar opposing pokémon in general was considered highly unusual. It also irked her that almost all the photos had an affectionate girl with him. She didn't mind Misty because she always looked grumpy in photos but for these newer girls she could see a distinct change in body language occur over the course of the year or so that they had travelled with him.

Then there was Anabel. As a girl she had paid quite of attention to the news that one of the most powerful trainers in Kanto had disappeared off the face of the earth. Female trainers had to stick together after all but when Anabel had been found Scott had initially celebrated the event and then just as quickly tried to hush it up. So to see the girl that had ended Leaf's frontier challenge already here and briefly tell everyone how a Mewtwo (what ever that was) had tried to dispose of her when she was going to tell Ash her feelings sent a cold chill down Leaf's spine.

At that moment her mother pulled her out of her thoughts to show her a picture of one of Ash's most recent starter pokémon sleeping in his unzipped backpack with the bags prior contents strewn about the floor. She couldn't help but give a girlish squeal at how cute it was.

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In the grounds just outside Prof. Oak's Lab Gary stood with the help of a pair of crutches and his Blastoise hovering protectively behind him. Assembled in front of him was all of Ash's pokémon that were kept at the facility. Ash on his early trips through Johto and Hoenn had occasionally regaled Gary with his encounters with legendary pokémon. After that Gary had always made a point of asking Ash about new encounters whenever they had a chance to talk.

A noticeable and scary trend Gary had noticed was that Ash was just as likely to challenge an aggressive legendary with his Scraggy as he was with his Charizard. Now an unexpected encounter could be somewhat excused but this time they had advanced notice about what they were going to be challenging. So Gary was out here as the sun set deciding which of Ash's pokémon they would take to Alola so that Ash had an appropriate team to defend him.

Ignoring SMOGON doctrine that pokémon with lower stats just shouldn't be used; there was one main reason why you didn't challenge a legendary with a pokémon like Scraggy or Bulbasaur. Small pokémon had small bones and small bones broke rather easily when hit with boulder sized attacks. They also couldn't save Ash from say falling to his death if a Legendary Bird showed up and decided to drop him from a great height.

The problem was that Gary getting them all to gather here and the guarded battle ready stance of his Blastoise and Umbreon next to him alerted them to the fact that something was wrong and that Ash was probably in trouble. Consequently they were all determined to get picked. Now Gary could technically bring along more then six of them but handheld switchers were more expensive than bikes, pokégears, pokétchs and Xtransceivers put together.

His grandfather had personally checked each and every one of his and Ash's pokémon with a cursory handheld psychic scanning rod and they had all come up clean. Apparently Mewtwo had decided that a language barrier would be more then sufficient and most of the pokémon hadn't thought that much of it when their trainer simply stopped mentioning certain people. Now that they knew however they were all hoping mad. Unfortunately they didn't know, nor could they tell Gary exactly who Ash had forgotten but when was life ever easy.

Still, Charizard and Krookodile were a must. The later was a high level dark type and Charizard was one of Ash's strongest and could fly. The earlier conversation with Iris indicated that Mewtwo was doing this as a job and not just for kicks. That meant that Mewtwo would probably have backup and most legendries could fly. Delia had nearly fainted when she found out that a legendary pokémon had a JOB specifically dedicated to ruining her son's romance life. It was kind of funny . . . until she started yelling.

But back to topic: who to choose since Ash would still use Pikachu regardless. Most legendries were flying, dragon or psychic so maybe Glalie, Noivern would be a good choice too. So many variables to consider.

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Back inside the lab, Anabel fingered the dark crystal pendant she had been given as one of many prototypes. It felt weird and stopped her from communicating with Espeon but no one else would probably notice anything. She sat at one of the workbenches with Misty while Prof. Oak and Noland argued over variables.

"I still can't believe Mewtwo would do that to you," said Misty in disbelief, "I mean he was kind'a rude but he was really nice."

"Yeah well, I still hate him," Anabel replied tersely. The idea that anybody could consider themselves friends with that monster was disturbing. She was also miffed that Misty was completely untouched bar her initial encounter with the tyrant. It didn't surprise her in the least that he used to be a megalomaniac bent on world domination. Chaining Ash up must have seemed like the perfect job for him.

"But why Ash? Couldn't they pick some elite veteran like Lance for the job of saving the world? It make more sense," questioned Misty.

"Based on the research I did with Looker and the International Police, the Chosen One is picked for maximum lifespan use and can't be a world leader or someone already famous with political sway. They want to keep these disasters as quiet as possible to avoid people asking question or trying to use them to learn how to outwit the worlds natural system," Anabel explained with detached professionalism, "Then when the Chosen One eventually fails and dies heroically to save the world, Arceus uses the incident to make globe spanning cultural reforms that benefit pokémon and people. If the Chosen One rebels or neglects their role, a new one is chosen and the old one is quietly disposed of because they are carefully managed to ensure they never reach champion level. I hate it and I will do anything necessary to save Ash but the set up is a lot cleaner and nicer than some of the other ones I've read about in the Sinjoh Ruins for other universes."

Misty just stared at Anabel in horror with her hands over her mouth. Anabel just looked back down at the black pendant. It was too brittle. This was the strongest and longest lasting prototype so far, cancelling out all psychic energy around the user while thankfully not affecting any insulated poké balls. But all of that would be worthless if Mewtwo could just telekinetically chuck a pebble with enough force that it would still travel the extra metre and smash the pendant. Noland and Prof. Oak had abandoned their initial dusk stone and machine designs in favour of creating an energy storing crystal that could soak up dark type attacks and let the energy permeate outward over the course of two months before it dissipated completely. "You wouldn't happen to know of a dark special move stronger than dark pulse would you?" she asked Misty.

Snapping out of her daze, Misty replied "I had a challenger last month with a Zoroark that used night daze but apparently that move is supposed to be its' signature."

Anabel let out an exasperated sigh, "Where are we going to find a Zoroark on such short notice. Dark pulse is good but it's not potent enough to block a Mewtwo. The crystals keep exploding due to the quantity of energy dark pulse needs to reach the calculated level."

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Around the same time in Alola it was well after dark. Ash and his friends had decided to stay over at the pokémon centre to keep J company and get to know him better. They had talked a lot about general pokémon knowledge but they got the distinct impression that J wasn't thrilled about their choice of late night game.

"Go fish. My turn, Kiawe do you have a wishiwashi," said Ash as he munched on a subway sandwich.

"So J, I know you've been avoiding the topic all night but what's your world like?" enquired Sophocles.

"Mmm, part of the whole idea of staying inside the neighbourhood is that the worlds aren't that much different," mused J as he handed a card over to Lana, "But I suppose if you keep asking I might as well cover some of the basics. A neighbourhood is a section of the multiverse that mostly has the same rules and general history. Due to the laws of relativity the further you go from your home universe, the more different the worlds you will find, while smaller leaps are more likely to lead to worlds that are very similar. For us, our neighbourhood is basically any universe created by an Arceus."

"What else would create a universe?" asked Lillie at the completely bizarre idea.

"Disturbing things, that's what," J replied flippantly before continuing, "Almost every time I've accidently strayed outside our neighbourhood has been a near death experience. Anyway mapping wise, our neighbourhood is divided into four regional sectors: Anima, Gamma, Lambda and the smallest sector Fafnir is right in the middle. All four sectors have distinct recurring traits but they're not like countries with fixed borders. There is no space, and thus no sense of direction, between universes and universes have been known to abruptly change their classification if certain significant events occur. My home universe is in the gamma sector close to the fafnir border. This universe is an anima one."

"That's great and all but your not telling us anything that means something to the none sciency people," interrupted Lana, "Tell us something that's different. Do you have flying cars or purple pikachu?"

"No, nothing like that," J laughed, "Mostly universes just have small cultural differences that are really disconcerting once noticed. As for an example, let me see. How about the fact that none of you are bothered by the fact that the subway sandwich that Ash is currently eating is much longer than the chest pocket that Mallow pulled it out of."

"No," Kiawe deadpanned in depression, "It bothers us but after the third time she did it and taking into account how dense Ash is, we just quietly agreed that it caused less of a scene if we turned a blind eye to it."

Ash looked down at his sandwich then back up at J, "I don't see what the problem is? The food was carefully wrapped so it's perfectly hygienic."

Mallow beamed innocently while Lana and Lillie glared at her. J just face palmed and asked if Sophocles had a Remoraid card.

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Faba trudged through the darkness of the docks grumbling while the black box containing the Cosmog rattled in his hand. When word spread about someone with a solgaleo at the trainer school he had temporarily halted his plans to investigate. After finding out the rumours were true and quickly realising there was no way he could capture it to open an ultra wormhole he resumed his original plan of catching Type: Null and Cosmog.

The first part had been easy, a little bit of well timed hypnosis when Gladion arrived home yesterday afternoon. But Cosmog was more trouble than it was worth. Considering how relaxed everyone in Alola was, it should have been easy to steal it when Ash and his stupid friends weren't looking. But that new trainer had been guarding it all bloody day and had actually threatened him when he saw the box in Faba's hand. Him, the great Faba, one of the greatest scientists in the world was threatened by some snot nosed brat that was too lazy to get a job and drivers license like a normal person his age.

But once Ash went home with Cosmog it had been child's play. The boy had even left the Professors lab on some outing and had his Rowlet and Cosmog stay behind so they could sleep. Marching onto his Aether Foundation speedboat he turned to see a panting Gladion at the docks entrance.

"So long sucker," he waved before pulling his boat out of the docks.

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Less than a minute later Gladion burst into the pokémon centre lobby where everyone was playing cards.

"Faba _pant_ stole _pant_ Silvally and _pant_ Nebby," gasped Gladion.

Without missing a beat, everyone ran outside to the docks edge to see Faba hadn't gotten quite as far as he would have liked because Aether Foundation boats were super eco friendly and had an auto pilot feature to avoid the massive schools of finneon that came up to the surface at night time. He was still to far for a lapras to catch up to but if someone had a sharpedo it would have been easy.

"Nebby, Ash what are we going to do?" Lillie cried.

"If only we had a ride pager with us," Kiawe growled.

"Give me a moment to switch my pokémon," announced J as he clicked some poké balls into a handheld switcher before throwing two forward, "Go Red Eel and Blue Eel."

Lana numbly tugged Ash's shirt, "Ash am I dreaming or is one of those gyarados shiny."

"It's not as impressive as it looks. Shiny gyarados are pretty common at the lake of rage," J shrugged then turned back to his pokémon, "Both of you, do you see that white boat out there. BREAK IT!"

Everyone looked uneasy at J's sudden feral grin with his last two words as the gyarados howled and shot off after the boat.

"What?" asked J in confusion, "Clearly the best and most obvious move in this situation is to cut off the opponent's means of getting away."

Sophocles raised his hand, "I think this is one of those 'small cultural differences that are really disconcerting once noticed' things isn't it."

"Ugh, why do anima people always assume solutions are made out of smiles and rainbows," J grumbled, "Besides whoever heard of a Gyarados trainer who didn't use it to blow up something at least once?"

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Faba leered at the red and blue Gyarados that ploughed through the school of panicked Finneon and came along both sides of his boat. A pair of simultaneous crunch attacks knocked out both his psychic pokémon and he spread his arms wide, "Congratulations, you beat me. Too bad your master didn't think far enough ahead to actually have someone with hands ride you to take back the pokémon I have."

The Gyarados glanced at each other and raised their tails in the air.

"You wouldn't dare," he sneered.

Both tails glowed bright blue.

"You wouldn't," Faba whimpered.

With a practiced motion, both Gyarados swung their tails down and smashed the boat in half cross chop style.

(Fortunately, as stated before, all Aether Foundation boats are super eco friendly so no oil would be spilled as a result.)

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Everyone (bar J and Gladion) stared in in horror at the sinking million dollar boat as the red Gyarados came back dangling a bedraggled Faba by the collar from its' jaws while the blue one followed carefully balancing a premier ball and Nebby (whose containment box had short circuited in the water allowing it to escape) on its' head.

"Which ever one of you owns these monsters, I promise I will sue you into oblivion," growled Faba.

"I don't have a passport that would be legally recognised by any government agency on the planet. What makes you think I care about a lawsuit from one lousy thief," quipped J.

Red Eel roared in approval and unintentionally dropped Faba back into the water.

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In Hoenn, Norman sipped a cup of crappy hospital coffee to try and keep himself awake. Many hours ago May's estranged friend Lisia had shown up at the hospital demanding to see her and after a tearful reunion they had been talking almost nonstop about contests. While he was happy for his daughter, he was a little concerned that both of them had a clear crush on Ash and hoped that whoever didn't end up with Ash wouldn't be bitter enough that it would ruin their friendship. But both girls seemed to magically be able to skirt around the topic in a way that only gossiping girls can. Noticing that they had stopped talking and were approaching him, he sat up straighter in his chair.

"There's been a change of plans. We're going to Meteor Falls before meeting up with Ash," May announced.

"Ok, sure. Can I ask why the sudden change in plans?" Norman hummed sleepily.

"Well you see, both Lisia and I both like Ash and have agreed to be rivals in love but there was another girl in Hoenn that developed feelings for Ash during my travels with him. It just wouldn't be fair if she had her feelings erased and no one told her so we're going to meteor falls first," May explained jubilantly.

"How vary noble of you dear. What's the girls name," asked Norman as he took another sip of coffee.

"Zinnia, Zinnia of the draconid tribe," beamed May.

Norman promptly spat his coffee. "You mean the vigilante girl that's wanted for questioning by the international police and for whom the league has issued standing orders for gym leaders to arrest and detain on sight after she blew up Sea Mauville?" he choked.

"Yep, that's the one. She's really friendly once she lets her guard down. I'm sure you'll like her," May grinned.

"Your Mother and I are going to need to have a word with you about who you socialise with on your travels," Norman moaned.

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Route 14, Kalos

"Can someone tell me why we're trudging through a swamp again," complained Trevor.

"Because some psycho psychic pokémon is responsible for Ash dumping Serena and making Miette forget she likes him," snapped Shauna, "So now they both want us to find Ash's Goodra and Greninja so we can go kick ass and save him."

"He didn't dump me, I was tricked into thinking that Ash rejected my feelings," Serena corrected.

"At least you still remembered that you had feeling," shuddered Miette, "I can't believe your indecisiveness was actually good for something."

Tierno slumped in depression, "Are you sure you want to do this Serena. I'm really glad you're back on your feet again but your life could be in danger. Is Ash really worth it."

"Yes," both Serena and Miette replied in unison.

"Better luck with the next girl buddy," said Trevor as he patted Tierno on the back.

"Come on guys, Goodra is really big. It can't be that hard to find," coaxed Shauna.

"We have been searching for hours and haven't even covered a single percent of this swamp," Trevor countered.

"Goooooodrrrraaaaa!" Serena called for the umpteenth time that day, "Ash really needs your help! Come out if you can hear me!"

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Striaton City Gym/Cafe, Unova

Cilan sat at a table with four guests whom he had invited for a free breakfast on the condition that they listened to the urgent information for them. Hilda, Bianca, Rosa and Yancy looked back at him with varying levels of either worry of scepticism.

"You really expect us to believe this story. I'm rather annoyed that your taking advantage of my friend Bianca but four girls falling for one guy in the space of a year is pretty farfetched," scowled Hilda, "To think I really had a high opinion of you as a gym leader before coming here. Even if the other three have had their memories altered I'm pretty certain this Mewtwo wouldn't have been able to get the better of my Zekrom. He is literally a walking manifestation of ideals so the idea of someone else changing his convictions is absurd."

Cilan rubbed his brow in frustration, "Alright then, why don't you go outside, send out your Zekrom and ask him about the Sword of Vale. If his mind is as strong as you say it is then he should have no problem telling you about it and proving me false or realising I'm right."

"Fine, I think I'll do just that," smirked Hilda as she got up and headed for the entrance.

"Look, this all sounds really scary but I don't know if I can justify taking the time off work for a maybe," Yancy apologised.

Rosa shook her head, "Don't bother, I think he just sniffed his Pansage one to many t-"

 **"THAT CHEATING OVERGROWN PURPLE WEASEL!"**

Everyone jumped at the sudden inhuman outburst before Hilda came running back in, "I don't know what happened, one second he was fine and the next he just went berserk. Please! You've got to help me calm him down!"

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Authors Note: By popular demand I have the Harem list. I seem to have unintentionally stabbed myself in the foot with how many I picked but I will try my very best to make sure they all get the attention they deserve. The Ash of this universe is apparently just that popular.

Name & Age:  
Leaf: 17  
Misty: 17  
Lyra: 14  
May: 15  
Lisia: 17  
Zinnia: 19  
Anabel: 19  
Dawn: 14  
Angie: 15  
Unova trainers normally start at age 14.  
Iris: 17  
Hilda: 18  
Bianca: 18  
Yancy: 16  
Rosa: 16  
Serena: 17  
Miette: 16  
Lana: 17  
Lillie: 17  
Mallow: 17

Thankyou for reading and have a happy new year.


	5. Chapter 5: No Rage like a Dragon's Rage

Extra long chapter this time because I wanted the first and last scenes to be in the same chapter for the title. Time zones made it inefficient to ignore all the groups in between so enjoy the chapter because the next shouldn't be anything like this long.

Also, I know I just gave you an official harem list last chapter but I watched the 'I choose you' movie recently and thought of a neat way to include Verity. Since I already gave an official I thought it would be rude to just change things so I'm going to put up a poll and let all of you decide. If I did implement this plot method, it would have nothing to do with Mewtwo because Ash has never met Verity in this universe but it should be clever. Cynthia's age won't change regardless of the result but introducing Verity will get both of them involved in the fight against Arceus.

The poll will have three options: 1) Introduce Verity as a harem member, 2) Just have her as a side character (In which case she won't get much screen time), 3) Do not use Verity because she should not exist in this universe.

I was originally intending to have a different first poll but too many ideas I came up with hinged on one of the results so you get this one instead.

I do not own pokémon as it belongs to The Pokémon Company, Game Freak and Nintendo. Long may they reign!

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Chapter 5: No Rage like a Dragon's Rage

30 Seconds Earlier

Hilda White strutted out the front doors of the Striaton Gym and found a nice garden spot to send out her legendary pokémon. After all she didn't want to freak anyone out by releasing Zekrom in broad daylight.

With a flash of light from her ultra ball Zekrom looked around for an opponent, saw none and then did a half bow, " _What can I do for my champion, the hero of ideals?_ "

"Really, I've owned you for a little over three years and you still always greet me with that overly formal stuff, just call me by my name already," grumbled Hilda, "Look, turns out the free breakfast was a con job. To think I actually got my first badge from that loser. Anyway I need you to tell me about the Sword of Vale. Cilan thinks that we visited that place and I supposedly fell head over heals for someone named Ash. Ridiculous I know but I said I'd ask you about it so that's what I'm doing."

" _Hmm, yes,_ " Zekrom mused telepathically, " _The Sword of Vale is an important artefact with great spiritual significance to us ancient dragons. If I recall we were supposed to go on a pilgrimage to visit it about two years . . ._ **THAT CHEATING OVERGROWN PURPLE WEASEL!** "

With a great crackle of blue lightning, Zekrom shot off into the forest surrounding Striaton City and began mowing down trees with reckless abandon.

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Present time

CRACKBOOM

"Well Hilda, when you lose control of a pokémon you certainly don't do it with half measures. Half the forest is already on fire," smirked Rosa.

"Oh shut up," snarked Hilda, "I just don't understand. Zekrom's always listened to me before. He's my strongest pokémon so we're going to have to work together to restrain him."

"Go Stoutland," called Bianca, "Try to hit Zekrom with take down!"

"You don't seriously think you can hit a flying dragon with a melee attack do you," said Rosa flatly.

CRACK. YIIIIP.

All five people then had to duck as a lightning bolt sent Stoutland sailing through where their heads had been located.

"At least she's helping!" screamed Hilda as she released Samurott and Golurk, the former to put out the fires and the later to combat her own pokémon.

"I don't know what to do. I only brought Spinda with me and if I sent her at that pokémon, she'll DIE," squeaked Yancy.

"Don't worry, we can handle this," soothed Cilan, "Go Stunfisk and Maractus. Stunfisk you help Samurott put out the fires. Maractus use mega drain on Zekrom."

"I just wanted a free buffet breakfast," sighed Rosa, "No one said I'd have to deal with a legendary pokémon. Think Rosa think, what could bring down a legendary. Lets try . . . Zoroark I need you!"

With a shrill cry a Serperior burst forth from Rosa's dusk ball much to Cilan, Bianca and Yancy's temporary confusion.

"Get his attention with night daze to bring him closer then restrain Zekrom with illusionary vines," Rosa commanded.

As the group began to bring the thrashing Zekrom to the ground, Chili ran up behind Cilan and caught his attention, "What the blazes is going on! We agreed that you could invite a few guests for a free breakfast not set the surrounding forest alight."

BOOM

"Just a little trouble with one of Hilda's pokémon, that's all. Once we calm Zekrom down, we can put this fire out in a jiffy," excused Cilan.

Chili did a double take at Hilda then grabbed Cilan by the shoulders to catch his full attention, "YOU INVITED THE CHAMPION TO OUR RESTAURANT AND DIDN'T TELL US FIRST!"

"What? Alder is the current champion," Cilan flummoxed.

"NO he isn't. If you'd listened to me talking about the match you'd know this. While you were in Kalos on your fishing trip, Hilda beat Alder with just four pokémon. The media made a huge hullabaloo about it," exclaimed Chili.

"Guys we have more important things to worry about then who does or doesn't know about my champion status. Cilan, Zekrom knocked out both your pokémon so you need to recall them," Hilda interrupted.

Chili nearly fainted when he saw the two girls next to Hilda and Bianca, "YOU INVITED MOVIE STARS AS WELL!"

"Chili, I think your missing the major issue here," Cilan sweat dropped as Zoroark went flying over their heads with another deafening crack of thunder.

Chili turned and released his Simisear to help out but continued pushing the topic, "I get that there's a rampaging pokémon but your sense of what is and isn't normal in everyday life has been completely messed up ever since you travelled with Ash."

"So Rosa and Yancy are part time and full time TV actors respectively. I don't see what the big deal is?" replied Cilan.

"That IT! When we get back I'm going to force you to sit down and watch something other than the cooking channel!" yelled Chili as both Simisear and Cilan's newly sent out Ferroseed were clobbered by fusion bolt.

"Zekrom please calm down before you hurt someone!" screamed Hilda in tears.

" **HOW CAN I CALM DOWN WHEN I FAILED TO PROTECT YOUR GREATEST WISH,** " came Zekrom's booming projection, so loud and so clear that everyone could swear that it was spoken instead of telepathic.

"What are you talking about? My greatest wish was to become champion of the Unova region. We've already done that!" cried Hilda as Zekrom turned and cut down another dozen trees with a blade like dragon claw.

" **YOU HAD A SECOND WISH THAT WAS EXTINGUISHED ALMOST AS SOON AS IT WAS REALISED. AN IDEAL THAT BURNED AS BRIGHTLY AND AS PASSIONATELY AS THE VERY SUN. WHEN I FIND THAT SORRY EXCUSE FOR A LEGENDARY, I'LL RIP HIM APART FOR THIS TREACHERY,** " answered Zekrom with a deafening roar.

"Are-are you saying that Cilan's story is true! That I really did meet and fall for this Ash person?" Hilda questioned in shock.

" **GRASSHEAD'S STORY? YOU THERE, GRASSHEAD, WHERE IS THE CHOSEN ONE? I MUST REUNITE HIM WITH MY APPOINTED CHAMPION OF IDEALS** " projected Zekrom as he paused in his rampage of mass destruction.

"I see you remember me but must you use such a demeaning nickname," cried Cilan in depression, "Ash is currently fine in Alola but someone tipped off the local professor about Ash's situation. The professor contacted Ash's mom Delia to get permission for a psychic scan and by some fluke Delia's written note wasn't discovered by Mewtwo when he wiped everyone's memories. She's been madly trying to get in contact with people to help Ash ever since."

Zekrom's crackling lightning died down as he landed in front of Hilda, " _In that case I must thank you for your dedication grasshead. Unfortunately it is probably too late to save the poor soul who made the initial discovery but now that I am on your side, nothing will stop us from defeating the chosen one's chaperone and reuniting the chosen one with my champion._ "

"That's great but it doesn't prove whether the rest of us are involved," interrupted Rosa, "Hurry up and return him so we can put out the forest fire he started. Everything else can be sorted out later."

" _Ah, yes. Allow me to remedy the results of me blowing off steam,_ " chuckled Zekrom as he sent a single bolt of lightning into the air.

Dark clouds spontaneously began to appear and a torrential downpour soon started.

"Now that the fire is sorted, I'm not going anywhere until you tell me exactly what happened Zekrom," Hilda demanded with a stomp of her foot, "And none of this ye old chosen one stuff. If I've really forgotten something important just tell me."

" _What is there to say,_ " shrugged the dragon, " _We went to pay our respects at the Sword of Vale and during our trip my eternal enemy Reshiram tried to take the swords power for it's own. You tried to make sure no one was hurt during my valiant attempt to stop Reshiram. Over the several days in which our battle took place you met and fell in love with the chosen one known as Ash._

 _After Ash teamed up with Victini to defeat Reshiram's wicked scheme, the boy's chaperone showed up and wiped the entire incident from the boy's memory. When you and I confronted the weasel about his actions, he got the better of both of us and stole your precious bond. I also believe these subconscious memories explain your current obsession with finding and catching Victini since without the distraction of becoming champion that pokémon has been all you've been able to think about for the last year._ "

"Um, I don't want to upset big, black and cranky here but I've visited that place during my travels and I think that account of things is just a tinsy bit one sided," Rosa interjected.

Hilda sighed, "Zekrom is the dragon of ideals. His recollection of events is always biased by definition. What it does prove is that if What's his name-"

" _Purple weasel,_ " Zekrom suggested.

"Mewtwo actually," corrected Cilan.

"If Mewtwo got the better of me when I had a legendary pokémon to protect me then we should all go to the hospital and get checked out," finished Hilda in defeat.

"Fine, fine you win. I'm sorry for accusing you of sniffing Pansage. But I want a free lunch as compensation for getting us all drenched in this storm," Rosa demanded.

"My boss is going to be so mad at me if I take time off for this, what am I going to do?" asked Yancy.

"You ask your family for help while I tell your boss to stuff it. Yancy that movie director slash pop idol manager works you to the bone. You have two months of accrued sick leave and this sounds like exactly the time to use it to help out this mystery guy," answered Rosa.

"I, err, still remember Ash. Does that mean I'm not affected," asked Bianca hopefully.

"No," Cilan sighed, "Iris still remembered Ash too but her feelings were simply erased. You definitely had a crush on Ash considering you kept 'accidently' pushing him into water fountains to see him take his shirt off."

"Really Bianca," exclaimed Hilda, "There are better ways of showing that you like someone then doing that."

"Those things just happened because I was clumsy, there is no way I'd keep doing something that embarrassing over and over on purpose," Bianca exclaimed in a flustered manner.

"You started drooling while his back was turned," Cilan deadpanned.

Chili clapped his hands together, "Alright then, you four come inside, get dry and finish your five star breakfast before we escort you to the hospital while I drag my brother out back and force him to tell me and Cress everything he conveniently FORGOT to tell us. Come on, I hate being wet."

: :

: :

Lumiose City, Kalos

"Hey Clemont, thanks for letting us use the shower," called Serena as she came down the stairs into the main dining area of Clemont's house.

After her group had managed to find Goodra, they had come to the Lumiose Gym to rest and have some much deserved food courtesy of Meyer. At the dining table Clemont didn't hear her as he made the finishing touches to his latest invention.

"The future is now, thanks to science," the inventor cried out as he raised his hand high and pushed the big red button with gusto.

"No Clemont, don't jinx it!" Serena shouted as she ran to stop the gadget blowing up in everyone's faces.

However luck was on their sides that afternoon and the handheld device lit up and started to emit regular pinging noises.

"May I present the Ash-Greninja detector 9000," said Clemont smugly, "Due to Greninja's unique signature, which I analysed while we were learning about the bond phenomenon, I was able to re-input the data and create a region wide sensor that will home in on our buddy. All the after effects of Lysandre's actions have been dealt with already so Greninja should be more than happy to become Ash's pokémon full time again."

Serena sat down at the table to get some food, "Well that's great news, you're a life saver when your inventions actually work. What's Bonnie up to on that laptop?"

"Oh, after dad took us to the hospital, we found out that the mystery pokémon, which we have since found out is called a Mewtwo by the way, only altered our memories to make us forget about you kissing Ash," explained Clemont, "Bonnie assumed the same would have happened to Ash's former traveling companions so she's been madly looking up everything about them so she can support you."

"Aw, that's really sweet Bonnie but I already got Ash to show me pictures of all his former traveling companions," Serena said, "I'm not particularly concerned about the competition since I know that Ash and me are meant to be together."

Across the table next to Bonnie, Miette leaned sideways to look at the laptop screen, "Serena, are you sure you don't want some early information because I'm not sure we can compete with these girls on looks or credentials?"

"Come on Miette, don't be such a jealous person," chided Serena, "Besides, we're Kalosian, everyone knows that Kalos is the world leader in fashion, food and art."

Bonnie looked up at Serena and grinned like a gengar, "Clemont and I saw those pictures too. Most of them were taken before those girls hit puberty. This May girl is at least two if not three bra sizes bigger than you from her current pictures which should be expected from a girl who _needed_ to wear a bra at age ten."

"GIVE ME THAT LAPTOP," growled Serena in a demonic manner.

: :

: :

Striaton City Hospital, Unova (several hours after the 'mysterious' forest fire incident)

The four Unova girls sat in separate hospital beds in their shared room in various states of shock. Unlike certain esteemed and overprotective gym leaders, they didn't have or weren't willing to fork over the money for private recovery rooms. So since they had all come in at once and were treated for the same condition the hospital had stuck them together while staff got in contact with their parents. All four of them were either over eighteen or otherwise allowed to sign their own legal documentation for work purposes so the hospital hadn't needed permission from parents to conduct the DPRS. However unions were strong in America and the Parents Supervision Society had sued enough people that the government had made laws so that hospitals had to inform parents when their children had treatment for psychic tampering.

Rosa, who had curled up into a ball, was the first to break the silence, "You know, when I was little, Mum always told me the kind of qualities I should look for in a husband. She said that any guy who thought you were attractive would sing your praises and claim that they would be willing to die for you. That some of them would actually be capable of tricking themselves into risking their lives for you because they would think they are in love. How most of these smooth guys would dump you the moment you got pregnant or a more attractive girl came along and that those that stayed would drop the wonder act as soon as you got married.

Mum told me that if I truly wanted to be happy then I would need to find someone that was brave, honest to a fault, diligent and kind to not just me but everybody. That they wouldn't rescue me just because they said I was special and wanted to keep up appearances but rather they would risk their life to save even a total stranger because to them that was the most obvious course of action that anyone in their place would have also taken. Only someone with that kind of personality would stick with me through thick and thin and be a wonderful father to any children I might have. I just – I just never expected I'd find someone who would fit that criteria so literally."

"That's really nice," Hilda deadpanned as she stared up at the roof, "Did she tell you any negatives or just positives."

Rosa chuckled and pulled her legs closer, "She also said that a guy like that would also be high maintenance because they would probably be clueless about girls and I'd have to stop them from getting into all kinds of trouble."

The other girls giggled in agreement before Bianca spoke up, "So we all really do have feeling for Ash after all huh."

Yancy sniffled into her pillow, "When he visited the studio, Ash noticed I was working too hard and fought with my manager until he got me a better contract. All the other guys I've ever met either think I'm to boring to bother with or know my stage name and just ask for autographs, locks of my hair or private concerts. I've never met another guy who was just genuinely worried about my health and not my fame. Unfortunately, after my memories got wiped my manager noticed and changed my contract back without telling me."

"That son of a," Rosa cried out, "That's it Yancy, whether you like it or not I'm changing you to the director I work for as soon as we get back to the studio."

"But we can't do that!" Yancy cried out, "Even if he's really strict, he's not a bad person and I'm only this successful in my carrier because he's the number one person at Pokéstar Studios."

"Argh, who cares about any of that stuff," shouted Hilda as she thumped her arm down on the bed, "We've all had our cry and our parents are going to be here within the hour to try and drag us back home. According to Cilan, Ash is in an even worse predicament then we were without realising it and I still haven't figured out how to beat a pokémon that doesn't even have to battle to win and send us right back to square one."

"Oh Arceus, what am I going to tell dad," Bianca panicked, "Not only is he going to try and revoke my trainer licence when he finds out a psychic type messed with my head but he's going to ground me when he find out I like a boy. Then he'll drive Ash to the other side of the earth so I never see him again."

"Oh please," Rosa replied sarcastically, "If Ash didn't bat an eye to staring down Ghetsis and getting shot in the process to protect me then I doubt he'll even realise your father is threatening him."

"YOU LET ASH GET SHOT!" screamed Hilda as she sat bolt upright, "What were you thinking, letting Ash near the biggest psycho in the region!"

"How was I supposed to know the guy's walking stick would turn into a Gatling gun?!" Rosa yelled back in self defence.

"IT'S GHETSIS! He always has a secret way of killing everyone around him! How else do you think he eluded capture for a full three years after I dissolved team Plasma!?" Hilda shouted back.

A nurse stormed into the room and barked, "If you girls start causing any problems, I'm fully authorised to sedate the lot of you."

With that statement the four teenagers promptly shut up and waited mutely for their families to arrive.

: :

: :

Hau' oli City Pokémon Centre, Alola

The morning after Faba attempted to steal Nebby, Ash knocked on the door to the room J was staying in.

"The people from the Aether foundation are here to talk about the boat," called Ash.

"Ah Ash come in, I'll be ready to go out and meet them in just a minute," came J's voice through the door, "I'm just doing a bit of inventory."

Our young hero entered the room to see J crouched on the floor with a multitude of items splayed out in front of his open bag in neat rows.

"You have a lot of stuff. Isn't it heavy to carry around everywhere?" asked Ash as he sat down next to J.

J laughed, "In most gamma universes some inventor took the blue prints of the poké ball and invented the item capsule. From that we got bags that have sown in hammer space chambers. I can't imagine how trainers like you can lug around camping supplies, food, medicine, clothes and poké balls without it. Anyway I called you in here because I have a gift for you."

Ash looked down in surprise as he was handed a long cream coloured wooden flute, "Er, thanks but I don't really play music."

"Neither do I. But after traveling through enough worlds I picked up some basic item crafting skills and making flutes is pretty easy. The design's based of my eon flute. Cheap knock off in comparison I know but it should do the job," mused J as he went back to marking off lava cookies on the handheld he had pulled out when they first met.

"Do what job and why are you giving me a gift out of the blue?" asked Ash.

"Oh I always give out mementos whenever I make friends. Proof that we met and all that," J smiled, "As for what it does, you did have a pidgeot right?"

"Yeah I had one," sighed Ash in depression, "Unfortunately the whole flock they were in charge of migrated and I haven't seen them since."

"Well that's good news. Terrible when I make a mistake and give a useless gift," J noted, "You see that flute works just like an eon flute does for Latias and Latios. Doesn't have the near unlimited range of one but the frequency should cover at least a region. The flute is designed to make a high pitch sound that we can't hear. Pidgeot in particular will notice that ones noise so don't blow it to often or you will drive the local population nuts.

Anyway the sound carries very well through the upper atmosphere and goes further when you blow it at higher altitudes. If you are the one to blow it then the sound will have slight pitch fluctuations that will match your tone of voice and should be recognised by your pidgeot. If the bird is nearby then it might come back to you. I don't think you'll find your pokémon without several years of travel but some chance is better than no chance right?"

Ash looked down at the plain looking object with sparkles in his eyes. Placing the mouthpiece to his lips, he blew down as hard as he could. The result was an ear splitting shriek that made J wince and shattered the mirror in the room.

"Your right, you can't play instruments. Next time blow gently or it won't work," J cringed as he quickly started packing things back into his bag, "You can go now, I'll be down in a minute."

A little while later J met back up with Ash and his worried friends as they stood in front of the pokémon centre before Lusamine, Wicke and a still tied up Faba (Wicke hadn't been able to remove all the ropes J and Gladion had used to restrain him).

"So, you're the mystery trainer that everyone has been talking about. Mind telling me why you thought it was necessary to destroy one of my boats and not have the courtesy to apologise or even look remotely guilty," asked Lusamine in irritation.

"Oh, it's you again," said J flatly.

"Excuse me?" cried Lusamine indignantly, "I don't think you realise just how much trouble your in young man. Now I have been generous and haven't pressed any charges yet because you've befriended my daughter but I won't be so lenient if you keep acting like this."

"Uhuh," replied J in boredom as he completely ignored the three Aether Foundation members in favour of pulling something out of his bag.

"I told you he was a conceited brat but nooo, no one ever listens to the great Faba about someone's character," Faba complained.

J found what he was looking for, pulled out a grey mechanical bracelet and held it out to Lusamine, "Would you be willing to take an immediate blood test by putting this around your wrist?"

The Aether foundation president just gawked at him, "Lillie, I don't think I want you interacting with this boy any longer. He is clearly some kind of unstable delinquent."

"What the hell are you thinking asking someone you just met to take a medical test," gaped Mallow.

"Yeah J, you're being very rude," Ash added.

"It's some tech I picked up from a future world. Completely harmless, it won't even pierce the skin," J continued as if they hadn't interrupted. His cold dead gaze didn't waver from Lusamine's indignant glare, "I won't cooperate with you until you take the test. I can't explain until afterwards as doing so is too much of a risk to my personal safety."

Lusamine glared at him for a minute before snatching the mechanical bracelet and examining it, "So you'll be polite if I put this on my wrist?"

"As long as it returns negative I'll even give you a hand written apology," J answered.

Lusamine looked at him shrewdly before replying, "I'm only doing this because Lillie told me you were from another world and would have grown up with different customs. I want you to understand that what your asking is highly offensive in this world so I don't want to hear you doing this again."

With that she clicked the bracelet open and put it on her wrist with the small rectangular screen facing upwards for everyone to see. The device immediately snapped shut with a distinct sound of a locking mechanism. The inner surface lit up as internal mechanics began to spin. 'Testing' appeared on the screen for about ten seconds before it flashed 'NEGATIVE' in big green letters and the device released itself from her wrist.

"Now do you mind telling me what this was all about," inquired Lusamine tersely.

J smiled and pulled out a prewritten letter of apology from his bag and handed it to Lusamine, "I needed to make sure you hadn't been exposed to Nihilego venom and turned into a raving lunatic. Too many of your counterparts have tried to kill me for me to afford to be polite about it."

"I – WHAT? How do you even know what a Nihilego is? Why would I be a raving lunatic?" sputtered Lusamine as she pulled back and refused to hand over the testing bracelet.

J just shrugged and pulled his hand back before turning to Lillie and patting her on the head, "I want you to know that you are a very lucky girl. Your mother in most universes is a ruthless, obsessive control freak that drove your brother out of home. You should try to resolve whatever problems you might have with her and just be grateful that she cares about you so much."

Lillie looked back in timid confusion before her mother reached forward and pulled her into a protective hug. She glared back at J in a way that only a protective parent could and replied, "I don't know what you've seen out there but rest assured I would never mistreat my daughter or son. I may be very busy with work but they mean the world to me. Now I'm going to keep this trinket of yours for a while and you are going to tell me exactly what happened to my counterparts. Is that clear?"

"It's all in the letter. There might be no cure yet for the damage a nihilego does to the body but there is a treatment to prevent further damage and allow the victim to recover somewhat. Now about the boat, I am a traveling trainer and obviously can't afford to replace it but I might just have a few bits of information that can make you overlook this incident."

"I appreciate the research material that's apparently in this letter but that boat cost millions of dollars. I can't just write it off for a few pieces of information," Lusamine countered.

J smirked, "Since you're not infected by nihilego venom I think you should find this piece of information enough. Are you aware that the hobo that runs the poké pelago just north east of here is a blonde amnesiac named Mohn?"

Lusamine's eyes widened and Lillie's head snapped around so fast that her hair smacked Faba in the face.

"Who's Mohn?" asked Ash.

"Mohn is Lusamine's missing husband and Gladion and Lillie's father," explained Wicke, "He disappeared many years ago while conducting research on ultra space."

"I have to go," Lusamine announced as she turned to leave, taking Lillie with her.

"What! Miss Lusamine, surely you don't believe this brat. Even if the information is true, it is not enough to overlook the costs of what he did," shrieked Faba.

Lusamine whirled around, "Shut up Faba. I'm already furious with you for using a Hypno on my son. If Mohn really is alive then I don't really care how many vehicles this traveller destroyed. I just want my husband back."

With that the two blonde women left leaving an awkward silence in their wake.

"Well . . . this is extremely awkward," said Wicke, "why don't we just call this a day and put all this mess behind us. I'm sure the president won't want to think about the debacle after she's reunited with her husband so I think we'll just let you kids off the hook. Just, uh, don't do anything like this again."

Before Ash or anyone else could respond, Faba managed to finally break lose of the last of his ropes and pointed a finger at J, "HOLD IT right there. I'm still going to press charges for assault boy. You're finished!"

J yawned comically while Ash and the others leapt to his defence, "Oh yeah, well if you do that then we'll just tell officer Jenny that you kidnapped Silvally and Nebby. How's that."

Faba grinned savagely, "Type: Null is actually my pokémon because _I_ created it. Gladion is the one who stole it from my lab. Cosmog is also a wild pokémon so I haven't done anything wrong."

"That's easy enough to fix," interjected J as he plucked an empty poké ball off Ash's belt, unzipped Ash's bag and tapped it against Nebby's sleeping face.

Everyone gasped and Lana called out, "You can't just catch a pokémon while it's taking a nap. It's just unfair."

J shrugged as the poké ball pinged and handed it back to Ash, "It solves the problem doesn't it? Honestly, from my perspective, not catching a legendary under your care is just downright irresponsible."

"What do you mean legendary," gasped Wicke.

J looked back at her in confusion, "You mean the Aether Foundation wasn't already aware? Cosmog evolves into Cosmoem and male Cosmoem evolve into Solgaleo. Females evolve into Lunala. Congratulations Ash, you now officially have a legendary pokémon."

Ash looked down at the poké ball in his hands as J's words were slowly processed in his head. Then when they clicked he promptly fainted from shock.

"Ash," both Mallow and Lana cried out as they moved to support his limp body.

: :

: :

Hearthome City Airport, Sinnoh

The early morning bustle of travellers coming and going via the airport terminal was an every occurrence. Once such group had come down from Solaceon Town.

"Mum, I'm going to be fine," grumbled Angie, "It's just a short flight to Kanto to link up with some people who know Ash, that's all."

"But sweetie, I know your quite fond of Ash but isn't this just a little bit too much?" her mother replied.

"Now, now honey, Angie is a grown girl. Where lucky she stayed home as long as she did," chided her father.

"I'm just worried about you Angie. When ever you wrote love letters to Ash, you always got back those creepy responses," said her mother.

"MUM! Not here," Angie whined, "Besides, we already checked into that. For some reason my letters kept being sent to Lavender Town and some ghost pokémon kept writing back responses as a practical joke."

"We know and we met the lad so I'm sure it's not his fault," grinned her father, "Just remember when you do get your dream guy to make sure we get grandkids."

"D-DAD!" Angie yelped, "You shouldn't being saying such things in public and especially not to your teenage daughter. Now everyone on the plane is going to be giving me weird looks."

Her mother sighed and yanked her husbands ear, "I think we better go before we embarrass her too much and she never speaks to us again. Have a safe trip Angie, we love you!"

"Bye mum, bye dad. I'll be sure to call you when I arrive in Pallet Town," waved Angie before she turned to board the plane.

: :

: :

Lilycove City, Hoenn

The plane tickets to Fallarbor Town that Norman had bought were scheduled for the early afternoon so May and Lisia had decided to fill in time by going shopping at the seaside markets of Lilycove. Her father was keeping a very close eye on her, which was comforting considering the circumstances, but he was distracted on his mobile with intermittent phone calls from her mother. Apparently Norman had told Mum about Zinnia and her intention to see her and after interrogating Max, (who had also been taken to have his memories checked) Caroline had been periodically calling to talk them out of it. Norman had told May very explicitly that, while he most certainly did not approve of interacting with terrorists, he would rather be present to protect her rather than say no and have her run off and do it anyway.

Overall, May liked the frequent phone calls (partly because she had never managed to save up enough money to buy a phone of any sort so her mother couldn't scold her directly) because it meant that Norman payed just enough attention to make her feel safe but wasn't able to pay attention to any of the beachwear and accessories that she and Lisia were picking out for Alola. Wallace had also called Norman several times. It had been very upsetting to know that one of the people she looked up to had prevented Lisia from getting back in touch with her. She could understand why but it had hurt to find out that Wallace knew she was a likely victim of psychic tampering and hadn't done anything (visible) about it. At her and (primarily) Lisia's frantic gesturing, Norman had lied to Wallace and said that he hadn't seen Lisia at all and had innocently questioned the champion as to why his niece would approach them in the first place.

"May, May is that you?"

Hearing the familiar voice, she turned from the stand up mirror where she had been examining the deep blue Kyogre patterned bikini Lisia had recommended she try on to see Drew approaching.

"Oh hey Drew. What can I do for you?" May greeted as she noticed his eyes briefly slide down and snap back up with a blush.

"You missed this mornings contest. What happened? We might both be ahead of the curve but we can't afford to slack off," Drew enquired.

May shifted awkwardly, she didn't exactly want to admit that she had had a DPRS. It was humiliating and scary enough already without her rivals finding out about it. So she decided to pretend nothing was wrong and get rid of him quickly before he asked to many questions, "Something came up and I just decided not to go, that's all."

"Something came up?" Drew raised an eyebrow sceptically, "May, this is your carrier. I don't want to see you throw it away by frivolously deciding to go on a shopping spree."

May frowned. Ash would have asked her what was important enough to miss a contest and if she needed help with it. Well, at least Drew was trying to help in his own way. Taking a subtle breath to calm her nerves, she looked at Drew with a strong determined expression, "Look Drew, I know what this might look like but I can assure you that I didn't skip the contest just to go shopping. Something important has happened and I'm going to need to leave the contest circuit for a little while. I don't really want to get you involved because it's none of your business."

"LEAVE THE CIRCUIT! What do you mean? Did someone die? What could possibly justify you needing to take that long off," Drew cried out.

"I uh well, Drew this is kind off personal," squirmed May, crossing her arms to try and display more confidence. A coordinator couldn't show weakness on stage or off stage after all. Unfortunately it gave her strength in the form of irritation as her change in posture caused Drew to glance down at her bust again. In the periphery of her vision she noticed her father start glaring at Drew while on the phone.

It was at that moment that Lisia decided to bound out of the makeshift change room, completely ignore Drew, and give a graceful twirl to show off the glitzy turquoise swimwear she had picked out, "Well May, what do you think?"

"Y-you two know each other personally," Drew stammered, completely thrown off by this turn of events.

"Tee hee, we're old friends," Lisia giggled, "I haven't seen you in a while Drew. I can tell by that floral scent that you're still using that $200 dollar shampoo brand. You should be careful with how much off that stuff you use or some people might get the wrong idea again."

May promptly had to cover her mouth to refrain from laughter as Drew went bright red, "For your information Lisia, you're the only person who has ever jumped to that conclusion. I've told you before and I'll say it again. I am NOT gay."

Lisia giggled again, "That's probably because I'm the only person you've met who could afford to spend that much on shampoo. I'm sorry I assumed you were gay when my parents set me up on a blind date with you but in hindsight it's really funny."

May snapped out of her sniggering fit, "Wait, are you saying that you two have dated?"

"Just the once. Mum and dad set it up since I'd defeated him a few times during his first run through Hoenn," explained Lisia, "My parents set me up on lots of dates with posh snobby people. It's one of the downsides of being rich. They're determined to make me give up on Ash."

Drew's face returned to normal and his eyebrow twitched at the name drop, "Why would you mention Ash now of all people. He has nothing to do with the topic which is May taking time off contests."

"Ash has everything to do with the topic. Since he's in trouble, May and I are going to Alola with some of Ash's friends to go rescue him!" Lisia exclaimed with a fist pump.

Drew looked bewildered then he turned to May indignantly, "You're leaving the contest circuit to help ASH of all people. He's a battler, I'm sure he doesn't need any help. Even if he does I'm sure he can get help from his battler friends. What you need to focus on is the next Grand Festival. I've already won one so this year is your year to shine."

May fidgeted uncomfortably again, "Drew, while the last part was very sweet, the rest of what you said was pretty offensive. You know I don't buy into that battler and coordinators shouldn't mix stuff. Besides, Ash really needs our help even if he is completely unaware of it so I'm going and nothing is going to stop me."

"But May, I thought you'd finally gotten over Ash and realised he was holding you back. All those detours for gym battles, private battle facilities and practice battles with him took precious time away that could have been better spent practicing for contests," Drew exclaimed.

Lisia gasped and May looked like she had been punched in the face and then slapped for good measure. The effect was made all the worse because Lisia had told her last night that while her skill had improved to the point were she should have been able to win a grand festival, she hadn't been able to do so because she had lost that spark of inspiration that she had had when she was traveling with Ash.

"Take that back," May growled.

"I won't because it's true," Drew said emphatically, "The first year I can excuse because it would have been a bad idea for you to travel alone while your pokémon were weak but after that he was only holding you back. Ash has been through what, six leagues now. Most people would have realised that they're just not up to it by that point. Even at battling he can't succeed and a loser like that shouldn't be dragging you down with him. I'm not saying he's a bad person but he's not good enough for you!"

"What do you mean 'not good enough for me!'? How dare you accuse Ash of holding me back!" May exploded, "I'll have you know that Ash has helped me in more ways than you will ever realise. So what if he's never managed to win a league. He's still an integral part of my life and I won't stand for you badmouthing him."

Drew sighed in exasperation, "Look May, I'm really sorry if I've offended you but I'm just thinking about what's best for you. I know that you and Ash were really close but that was back then. You haven't spoken to each other in years and he's never shown the slightest trace of returning your feelings. He's travelled with multiple girls since and I'm sure he's forgotten about you. He will never care about you the way . . . the way I do!"

May hung her head, "I'm sorry Drew. I know you like me . . . and I've known for a long time but I've just never felt that way about you. My heart belongs to Ash."

"WHY!?" Drew burst out, on the verge of tears, "Why is it that even after you seemed to give up on Ash, nothing I do seems to catch your attention? What does he have that I don't? When has he ever shown that he cared about you more than I do?"

Drew looked her up and down again, "You are the most beautiful girl I've ever met. On stage you are graceful, elegant and breathtaking. How Ash could never see it is beyond me. Why would you choose him? You're from two completely different worlds. You should be with me!"

"That's the thing Drew," said May quietly without looking up, "You think I'm pretty and talented but that's it. You have never asked me about anything unrelated about coordinating. You like the idea of me but not the person underneath all that. You always ignored Max and get so fixated on winning. If you had to choose between me and coordinating, I know that you'd choose coordinating. I'm not saying that you should abandon your dream but I want more from a relationship than being married to someone who's so busy I never get to spend time with them.

Ash might not have returned my feelings yet but I know that if I needed him, he would drop everything, even the league final, to come and help me. The most important thing to him are the bonds he forges with those around him and he will stop at nothing to protect those connections. I know that if I'm with Ash, I'll get to spend lots of time with him and that he will support me no matter where I want to go or what I want to achieve next. If I decided that I wanted to be a world renowned chef, it would be over between you and me but not with Ash."

Drew was quiet after she finished but then he murmured, "If Ash is so wonderful then why did you follow me to Johto instead of going with him to Sinnoh?"

May's head snapped up and she took a panicked step back. Before she had to answer though, a heavy hand descended on Drew's shoulder.

"I think that's enough harassing these girls lad," said Norman sternly.

Drew turned to see who was behind him and made a snap judgement based on the way Norman stood and the way he held his hand over his poké balls, "Stay out of this Battler, this is a matter between Coordinators."

"Oh?" Norman smiled in a way that promised doom on boyfriends the world over, "That's peculiar. When my daughter mentioned you in phone calls, she didn't mention just how arrogant you are."

"D-daughter," stammered Drew as he began to sweat bullets, "Your h-her father?"

"Yes," said Norman with that increasingly intimidating smile, "May's father, the gym leader. Of course if you have the guts to confess to my daughter then you would've known that, wouldn't you. After all, knowing about the girl you claim to be in love with is relationships 101 isn't it."

"I-I," Drew stuttered.

"Now let me tell you how I see things," Norman smiled, "Just from one man to another so that you know what not to do next time. I fly across Hoenn to see my daughter because she has been admitted to hospital for psychic tampering. My daughter is very upset but is cheered up when she is reunited with her long lost friend. Then after she is discharged from hospital that friend suggests that they go shopping to make her feel better. During that time, a rival of hers shows up to check on her condition. Fair enough, I think but then he starts to berate her and harass her. While she's trying on some very provocative clothes that she knows her parents wouldn't approve of her wearing in public. Then he continues to yammer on about a lot of stuff I couldn't really care less about because he keeps eyeing my daughter up and down right in front of me like she's something for sale. My innocent, exposed, currently distressed and conveniently cornered daughter that's only just come out of the psychic treatment ward. Now tell me Mr Drew, what do you think my next course of action will be?"

"T-to shake m-my hand and tell me s-some ground rules for dating your daughter," Drew stammered in a pleading fashion.

"Not quite" Norman smiled as he raised a poké ball.

(One under arm Slaking focus punch later)

"Dad, do I need to be worried about Ash's safety," trembled May.

Norman wrapped an arm comfortably around his daughter, "Now May, one of the reasons why I liked Ash so much was because he never gave you lecherous looks. I know that once you get to Alola, you're probably going to try to make him look at you but I know the difference between an accidental glance and deliberate ogling. I knew exactly what was going through his head when he looked at you that third time. Ash would be too flustered and those ideas wouldn't even occur to him. He'd be too busy trying to think of what he's supposed to do while most guys his age are thinking about what they want to do. Now be a good girl and get back into your normal clothes before I have to get rid of another boy that thinks he's the next superstar in the making."

"You don't think he'd be just a little bit happy to see me in this," asked May with tentative hope.

"Have his eyes ever dropped below your chin while you were wearing any of the other skimpy swimsuits that you think your mother and I don't know about?" Norman questioned.

"No," May grumbled as she stalked off to the change room, "He was more concerned about making sure I was having fun at the beach."

"AND that's why I like him," Norman grinned, "Any guy that prizes your smile more than the rest of your body is a keeper in my books."

: :

: :

Kanto

A days travel through the forest north of Mulberry City, Dawn ran into an unexpected friend along the road.

"Brock! What are you doing here?" she greeted with a smile, "I thought I wouldn't see you until I stopped by Pewter City."

"Well to be honest Dawn, I was hoping to intercept you," Brock explained with his arms crossed.

Dawn's smile slid into an expression of concern, "Is something wrong? It must be pretty serious if you'd leave your studies just to see me a little sooner."

"Well that depends," Brock shrugged, "Dawn, do you still have feelings for Ash?"

"Huh?" Dawn deadpanned. That question had been completely left field.

"Look Brock, if you need dating advice you can just ask me directly. There's no need to make things up to cover your insecurities," Dawn replied.

"I see, so you don't remember," Brock affirmed.

"Don't remember? Wait a minute, have you been speaking with my Mum," accused Dawn.

"Dawn, I think I should take you to the hospital," said Brock firmly.

"I don't believe this! I'm really sorry Brock but my mum's waisted your time. I'm perfectly fine," Dawn exclaimed.

"Please Dawn, Ash is the primary victim and anyone who's travelled is likely to have been affected as well," Brock replied, gesturing his arms down in a placating manner.

"Ash is – No I'm not getting pulled into this. I'm not amused by this practical joke. You're taking things too far. My memory is fine. My pokémon would have battled a psychic type before it got to me and I would have had to treat any injuries afterwards. I'm more then happy to help if Ash is in trouble but I don't need to go to the hospital," snapped Dawn.

"Ok Dawn calm down. There is a simple way to settle this. Do you still have your diary? The one you had back in Sinnoh," asked Brock.

"Of course I do! I keep all my old diaries with me because they are full of concept sketches for various clothing designs," Dawn exclaimed.

"And when was the last time you looked at one of your older ones," Brock prodded.

"Just last . . . last . . . I . . . don't seem to . . . remember," Dawn trailed off.

Panic rising in her, she dropped her bag and began madly rifling through it to find her diaries.

"Dawn, I never read your diaries but I do know that you developed a huge crush on Ash. Your diary should probably mention it somewhere so if you find it, please come with me to the hospital," said Brock.

"Th-that's just silly. No need to worry, this is all just a huge misunderstanding," Dawn muttered in borderline hysteria as she fumbled with the padlock to one of her diaries, "Just because you travel with someone doesn't mean you'll develop feelings for them. L-love is really important to a girl, there's no way I'd forget about falling in love."

Unfortunately the very first page the book opened up on disagreed with her.

 _Wedding dress design no. 32_

 _If Ash and I get married in the winter, this design will look beautiful in the snow. The fluffy rims will help keep me warm while the elegant snowflake pattern will highlight . . ._

She flicked to a much earlier entry

 _Mrs Dawn Ketchum, Oh I love how that sounds. If only I could figure out how to make him pay more attention to me._

She flicked through the pages again.

 _I had another steamy dream about Ash last night. It was so embarrassing trying to clean my sleeping bag in the nearby river without anybody noticing._

Dawn began to hyperventilate as she flicked to later entries. Perhaps it was just a passing crush that she had forgotten about. Just something to do with her being a new trainer and Ash being her senpai. Yes that had to be it.

 _Who is this May girl? She and Ash seem quite close but it seems to be platonic. She's really nice and I'm sure we could become great friends but she showed up so suddenly. Does Ash have other girls that he's travelled with? Oh, this is going to keep me up all night worrying. I don't want someone to just show up and whisk away my Ash._

She flicked through the pages again, desperately trying to find something that would contradict the horrible truth that was settling over her. A fight, another guy, something, anything that would make this dizzying feeling go away.

 _Lyra asked me if I was dating Ash today. Why, why, why can't I pluck up the courage to just tell him I like him already? What if he rejects me, what if I ruin what we already have? What if I keep hesitating and someone like Lyra takes him from me? Argh, why do I have to be so nervous about saying three simple words? Three stupid syllables, that's all. Maybe I should ask Brock for some advice. Wait did I really just consider getting advice from Brock the total dating failure. What is wrong with me?_

"H-how?" Dawn choked as her eyes began to water, "When did this change?"

"Try the end of the book or your trip to Unova," answered Brock sympathetically as he began to rub her back.

She found the entries pretty quickly. A full twenty pages worth of rehearsed and refined confessions all leading up to the day before she would be reunited with Ash and finally confess. That days diary entry however just talked about the wonderful weather and how excited she was to be going on a trip with Cynthia. Only a single line at the end mentioned Ash. Bile rose in her throat. A single line mentioned as an afterthought just for formalities sake.

 _Oh, and Ash showed up today. I was really surprised to see him._

It was right next to the page with the finalised confession. How could she have not noticed when they were right next to each other? What else did she not remember? How many other lies had she been fed from unseen foes? Why hadn't her pokémon defended her? Why, why, why . . .

Brock moved to support the hyperventilating coordinator as she passed out from shock. Sighing, he put her things back in her bag and sent out Steelix. At least he wouldn't have to carry her the several miles it would take to get back to civilisation.

: :

: :

Goldenrod City, Johto

In one of the more upper class cafés of the business capital of Johto, Lyra sat having some afternoon tea with an annoying uninvited guest. As was the going trend in Johto, she had several pokémon out to keep her company including her Marill on her lap and the two pichus she owned sitting on the table staring up at her with big innocently adorable eyes while they nibbled macaroons. It was these two pokémon that were unintentionally responsible for her uninvited guest, one of those late 20s to early 30s overweight pokémon collectors with big round glasses that hid his eyes with the sheen alone.

"Ms Lyra, I think your being unreasonable. I've offered you money, I've offered you connections, and I've offered twenty assorted pichu, pikachu and raichu. I know you're attached to your pokémon but I simply must add a shiny pichu and the legendary spiky-eared pichu to my collection," the man sputtered.

"I said no when you first sat down and I'll say it again. N. O. No. Now leave me alone," Lyra replied dryly.

"What about a car! A nice red shiny sports car," the man protested.

"If you stay any longer, I'm going to call the cops," groaned Lyra, "I know what you people are like. I will not sentence my pokémon to spend the rest of their lives in one of those glass display cases just because they have a different coat of fur!"

"JUST a different coat of fur! Now Ms, this pichu is a shiny and the other one is even rarer than that. Spiky-eared pichu have been recorded throughout history for being involved in pivotal world events but a collector has never been able to get a hold of one. For someone as reckless as you to use such a valuable specimen in something as dangerous as the lamp jump event is unacceptable. What if it falls or worse, loses the spiky fur on its ear!" the collector ranted.

"I've tried shaving its' ear just so I don't get pestered by people like you. The fur just grows right back to full length in less than a week," Lyra deadpanned, "Now see my pokégear here. I'm dialling the local officer Jenny so scram."

Fortunately the man gave up and left, allowing her to slump on the table. To think that before she had caught these two she had never even heard of a shiny. All she had been thinking about when she had seen the pikachu coloured pichu in Ilex Forest was that she had wanted a pikachu like the one Ash had. Two weeks of pursuing the little escape artist later and she had the spiky-eared Pichu bawling its' eyes out in front of her because she had caught its' brother. So she had reluctantly caught the second one so as not to separate the family only to find out after the fact that both of them were too stubborn to evolve.

Still . . . it was hard to argue with how cute they were. When she had found her calling at the Pokéathlon, they had made her an instant crowd favourite. She still competed in the leagues of course but the Pokéathlon was much more frequent and gave her a more stable income.

"You know, it's your fault these people keep bothering me," she grumbled. She didn't blame them of course but these frequent collectors were a nuisance. The shiny one just tilted its' head while the spiky-eared pichu leaned forward, picked up a macaroon off the plate and offered it to her while continuing to nibble its' own with the other paw. The effect was too cute for her to stay mad at them and she had to restrain herself from picking them up and rubbing them against her cheek like a plushy. She had learned the hard way that they didn't appreciate the same affectionate gestures she could do with her Marill. So she gratefully accepted the macaroon and let her thoughts drift to vaguely wondering whether Ash got shocked by his pikachu if he rubbed its' cheek.

Straitening up, she slapped her cheeks. "Now, now Lyra you mustn't think about Ash. You already ruined your last relationship by starting to frequently compare your boyfriend to him," she self scolded.

It was a curious thing about her, one that hours of contemplating and even talking to her parents and closest friends hadn't been able to solve. After that trip to Sinnoh, the more she thought about Ash, the stronger her feelings for Khoury became. The more she thought about Khoury . . . well, she felt like a terrible person for thinking this but the more she thought about him the more dull and boring he seemed and she quickly felt her feelings dwindle. The paradox drove her crazy and the constant seesaw of emotions and Khoury's very reasonable dislike of being unintentionally compared to a trainer who already had three leagues and the battle frontier under his belt had ultimately ruined the relationship and their friendship. Life with Khoury would have been just . . . normal. She wanted excitement, the thrill of adventure. As much as she adored her grandparents, she didn't want the life of a pokémon breeder.

Pichu's spiky ear twitched and it dropped its' fresh macaroon to look out the café entrance. Then without warning, it jumped off the table and darted out of the establishment.

"Pichu wait, you can't just run off like that," Lyra called as she frantically scooped up the other Pichu and her Marill and ran after her mischievous pokémon.

Through the busy street and roads they dashed, headless of their surroundings. Worry continued to build up in Lyra as the risk of someone like those collectors trying to steal her Pichu again steadily rose. Up, down, left, left, right. Pichu seemed to be tracking something but she had no idea what. Just when Lyra began to reach the end of her admittedly impressive stamina, Pichu turned into a derelict ally and she rounded the corner only to stop dead in her tracks.

Right in front of her was Celebi. THE Celebi. Even more shockingly was that Celebi was handing her Pichu a bulky envelope. HER Pichu was receiving something directly from a mythical pokémon. Before she could process how to react to the scene before her, Celebi waved goodbye to Pichu and disappeared in a brilliant flash of light that sounded like bell chimes echoing. Pichu nonchalantly bounded up to her and presented the envelope.

"I – er – thankyou, WAIT WHAT?" Lyra burst out, "Pichu, what's going on, was that Celebi? How do you two know each other?"

Pichu and her sibling snickered and gestured for her to open the envelope. Complying with their request, she carefully pried it open to find a black crystal pendant, a hospital receipt, a plane ticket to somewhere called Alola and a photo of her and Ash in beach attire at some tropical location. What the hell? Didn't these situations usually involve some kind of letter to ones self or something? It seemed that Ash looked better than ever . . . and there went her strange emotional complex again. What was wrong with her weird feelings? Maybe the receipt would be more helpful. It was dated for today in . . . FOUR hours! What was a DPRS? Okay so apparently Pichu and Celebi wanted her to go to the hospital and then maybe use the plane ticket to go to Alola? What was the jewellery for? Oh darn, she didn't have time to think about all this. She would have to go to the hospital right now if she wanted this appointment because the waiting line would take forever even if no one else needed that particular procedure. She'd just have to figure the rest out later.

: :

: :

Meteor Falls, Hoenn

May had absolutely no idea whether it was light or dark outside by now because it was pitch dark inside the cave network. If it weren't for Blaziken then she, Lisia and Norman would be in total darkness. The trip here was pretty uneventful: arrive in town, take a tourist bus and then rent some hiking equipment. Still, wasn't the Draconid Tribe supposed to be here somewhere? This is where Zinnia had said she lived. But then again that was years ago. What if the tribe was nomadic? Maybe there really was nothing down here but solrock, lunatone and an insanely large population of golbat.

The sudden illumination of large red eyes ahead made the three travellers (plus Blaziken) freeze. More red circles of light began to light up around them, swaying up and down. A deep ancient growl chilled their blood.

"Turn back traveller. We have you completely surrounded so don't try anything funny," came a voice from under the red eyes.

"Zinnia, is that you?" May called out in relief.

"Oh? Have you come here to arrest me specifically? How adorably stupid," came Zinnia's amused reply.

Okay, not the response she wanted. In the dull light from Blaziken and the red spots, she could see that they were indeed surrounded by at least fifty people. How had they gotten so close without anyone noticing?

"May, think fast," said Norman as he sent out Slaking.

"We're not here to fight. I'm May, you and I have met before, you just don't remember it. Someone important to both of us has been suffering for a long time and I've only just recently been made aware of it," May explained quickly, "If we can just go to the hospital so you can remember-"

The red eyed pokémon hissed and Zinnia started laughing, "Did you really think you could trick me into going to a place where people will just sedate me. Would you like to try again with your back up cover story or should I dispose of you now. You were even kind enough to bring a gym leader right into our den."

"Zinnia, I know we've never met but I can assure you that trickery is the last thing on my daughter's mind," Norman announced firmly.

The red eyed pokémon hissed again and slowly, oh so terrifyingly slowly, long luminous yellow streamers began to glow, stretching from its head and snaking along its black body. It didn't take long for Norman, May and Lisia to realise what the black pokémon coiled in the air around them actually was. Lisia's legs gave out from under her in fear and Slaking immediately rushed forward to protect its' family.

"I take it you recognise Rayquaza even if this one isn't green," said Zinnia smugly, now visible beneath the dragon's head.

Slaking reached the ridge of rocks she was standing on and raised its' fist. Rayquaza answered with a single hyper beam that sent Slaking skidding along the ground, passed Norman and then crashing into another ridge of rocks behind them. Slaking didn't get up after the attack was finished.

"Now, why are you really here? Did the international police send you?" Zinnia barked.

"I'm telling the truth, I swear," May cried out, "We came to help you remember Ash. A powerful psychic pokémon has been making people he's encountered forget about him. Please Zinnia, don't do something you'll regret. We're friends and the same thing happened to me so I know I'd want someone to reach out and help me if I had forgotten someone really important!"

"Hmph," Zinnia responded confidently, "While there is no harm in getting my memory checked, there are people in the tribe who can do that so your trap's still a bust."

"That's great, the sooner you remember the better," smiled May.

Whatever confidence Zinnia had promptly slid off her face and was replaced with a frown. She looked to her right and jerked her head to indicate that someone unseen should move to the dark expanse behind her. Turning around to leave, Zinnia gave one last backward glance before she walked into the darkness, "Your either very brave or completely insane. Either way you're stupid. Rayquaza . . . play with them until I get back."

May and Lisia only had a second to comprehend what Zinnia's parting statement would mean before the black mega Rayquaza shot forward and ploughed right into Blaziken. May watched in agonizingly slow motion as Blaziken's body folded in the middle over the black snout and Blaziken immediately vomited its' stomach contents before they were gone from her field of vision and the half dissolved lunch splatted on the ground without having made contact with Rayquaza's body.

"Go Ali," yelled Lisia in panic.

Her Altaria came out with an elegant cry but Lisia was already hitting her mega tiara much to her pokémon's alarm. May looked around frantically for her starter as she fumbled with her belt to send out another pokémon. Norman sent out another Slaking and his Vigoroth before Blaziken's limp body came flying out of the darkness to hit Ali mid evolution, sending them tumbling across the dirt.

"Blaziken!"  
"Ali!"

A hyper beam came from a different direction and hit both pokémon to finish them off.

"Now Slaking, use fling to hurl Vigoroth at Rayquaza, Vigoroth use slash."

Lisia and May rushed to recall their fallen pokémon while Vigoroth was launched with a primal howl at the golden streamers in the darkness. Rayquaza however had other ideas and zipped to the side and began to streak overhead in complicated patterns. Now that Blaziken had been returned, the shifting golden streaks above them were the only source of light.

"What are we going to do? That thing is going to kill us!" Lisia yelled as she began to tear up.

"Don't panic, Ash and I used to deal with events like this all the time. Well, we didn't normally fight the legendary directly but with Dad here I'm sure we can last until Zinnia get back," May soothed.

They heard Vigoroth come back and Slaking hurl it up at Rayquaza while Norman got close enough to recall his first unconscious Slaking.

"I'm having serious second thoughts about letting this girl near Ash," Lisia grumbled as she steeled her nerves.

"I'm-I'm sure she'll apologize," May gulped as she sent out Glaceon.

A flash of light let the girls know that Norman had sent out an exploud and then ordered it to start using ice beam. Glaceon joined in and Slaking used fling to send Vigoroth into the air a third time. None of the attack seemed to land but they did drop quite a few stalactites. Then Rayquaza paused and glowed brilliant green. Shooting vertically down, it smashed Slaking into the floor and then turned, grinding through the stone as it did so. Both Exploud and Glaceon scored several direct hits with ice attacks before Rayquaza turned its head and fire a dragon pulse into Exploud.

"This isn't working," complained Lisia, "I don't have another pokémon I can send out without risking it getting killed."

"Dad, any ideas," shouted May.

"Get your pokémon to form a barricade!" Norman hollered back, "This Rayquaza keeps taking out what it considers to be the biggest threat so if you stick to defence it should ignore you!"

Taking advantage of the dragon's stationary position, Vigoroth dropped out of the darkness above onto Rayquaza's head and started slashing the crap out of it. Unfortunately, as valiant and epic as Vigoroth looked, Rayquaza's scales seemed to be tougher so it ignored it in favour of repeatedly blasting Exploud with dragon pulse.

"All right Glaceon, build a wall with ice shard then get ready with mirror coat," May commanded.

Before the ice wall blocked the fight from view, May saw Rayquaza's tail lazily flick forward and the yellow strips on the end coiled around Vigoroth's arms. The tail snapped back and hurled Vigoroth back into the darkness.

"Please be alright Dad," prayed May.

The relative safety beneath the giant ice cone had an eerie silence with flashes of light outside illuminating the darkness. It lasted all of two minutes before an unconscious sawsbuck smashed through the ice wall and landed on Glaceon.

"DAD," May screamed.

"May stay back. That was my last pokémon," cried Norman as the mega Rayquaza loomed over him as if it had just found a mouse to chew on.

"No, stay away from him!" shouted May as she completely forgot about using a pokémon or anything else in her mad dash to reach her father.

Rayquaza's head shot down and somehow managed to snatch Norman by the ankle before hoisting him into the air.

"No you stupid girl, I told you to stay back," Norman yelled as Rayquaza dangled him over his daughter like one would dangle string over a cat.

May jumped futilely as Rayquaza swayed Norman back and forth, its' red eyes fixed unblinkingly on the girl that was its' unwilling playmate. Then Glaceon ran out to its' masters side and Rayquaza's tail cracked forward like a whip. Glaceon was instantly knocked out with a loud smack and May momentarily panicked and moved to check that her pokémon hadn't been killed or received any broken bones. The diversion annoyed the black dragon because the game was no longer being played.

So Rayquaza nonchalantly dropped the man and picked up the brunette girl by the ankle instead to see if the man would give a better reaction. To its' delight the man reacted wonderfully, waving his fist and yelling abuse at it before breaking into a run when it swung its' head in a way that made it look like it would throw the girl. Of course it had no intentions of doing so since its' owner had strictly said 'play' not 'hunt'. Most humans were intimidated by dragons and were easily distracted by mundane things like burning buildings. So Rayquaza had simply taken its' time enjoying a little light sparring to remove the distractions before giving the humans some incentive to play properly.

Said dangling human however did NOT enjoy the dragon's idea of play. All the blood rushed to May's head as she swung back and forth trying desperately not to vomit. The end of Rayquaza's tongue had wrapped itself around her ankle, allowing for the rest of her hang helplessly while it made terrifying motions to toss her. Was she going to be eaten? The tongue gave her leg enough leeway to ensure it didn't snap but it didn't make the nausea any easier.

Something extremely fluffy, soft and warm slammed into her and forcefully pulled her from Rayquaza's grip. That was a plus but the realisation that her sock and shoe had been ripped off in the process was not.

"May, are you okay? I used a revive on Ali so he's all right again," said Lisia from somewhere on the other side of the wall of fluffy white.

May just groaned as Lisia's hand grabbed her own and pulled her off Ali's tail and onto it's back. The black serpent eyed them indignantly as they soared through the air. It opened its' mouth and prepared to fire hyper beam.

"Not this time! I won't let you get a cheap shot on Ali," Lisa cried, "Let's show this pokémon what a mega Altaria can do Ali!"

With a vengeful chirp, Ali swerved out of the hyper beams way and began too duck and weave to avoid it. While normally evolution and mega evolution radiated enough energy to make approaching a pokémon impossible, having a mega evolution interrupted by say, a fully evolved projectile pokémon, hurt like hell. Ali might not be a battler but any dragon would want payback after being blindsided like that.

"Okay Ali, use tailwind then dazzling gleam," Lisia commanded.

"Um, should I send out another pokémon," asked May once she got her bearings back.

Lisia giggled, "Ali mega evolves into a fairy type and I have it train with uncle Wall's pokémon so he's actually really strong. We should have this in the bag."

Unfortunately Rayquaza then did what legendary pokémon do best and promptly screwed over whatever chance they had of winning. With a deafening roar, waves of turbulent wind began to ripple from its' body and knocked away all the stones launched by dazzling gleam. The air became erratic and Ali got pulled in one direction, then another. Rayquaza slithered effortlessly forward through the turbulent wind currents and then grabbed the Altaria with both arms.

"NO! Let go of my pokémon you big meanie," Lisia cried as she started to kick Rayquaza's scaly hand.

Rayquaza then dived and levelled out just above the ground, dragging Ali and his two now screaming riders along the stone ground at ferocious speeds. Ali squawked and writhed in agony but it couldn't escape the larger dragons grip. When Rayquaza finally did let go, their inertia sent them rolling and tumbling at full speed into a stone wall. By luck or protective instinct, the mega altaria shielded May and Lisia with its' fluffy tail and wings but the impact was too much for it.

"Ali, Ali, wake up Ali," pleaded Lisia as she began to cry.

"I've never seen such a brutal battling style," shuddered May.

Rayquaza hissed and watched intently as the annoying bird reverted back to its' less threatening form. It didn't like needing deal with the same problem twice.

"Rayquaza stop! No more! Don't hurt them," came Zinnia's frantic echoing cry.

A light became visible and as it approached, May and Lisia could make out Zinnia desperately running towards them with a lantern. Coming to a stop in front of them and dropping the electric light source, Zinnia put her hands on her knees to support herself as she caught her breath.

"So . . . does that mean you remember me," May asked tentatively.

Zinnia straightened up, grabbed the brunette by the shoulders and began shaking her, "May, what the hell were you thinking! You can't just waltz into draconid territory like that. I was really going to kill you for threatening my home. DON'T you ever do something that STUPID again."

"Okay, okay just stop shaking me before I throw up. Your Rayquaza really did a number on me," replied May dizzily.

Zinnia let out an exhausted sigh, then abruptly pulled May into a crushing hug, "Thankyou. Despite how stupid it was and make no mistake, I never want you to do that again, I really appreciate you coming all the way out here. There aren't a lot of people out there who are that loyal to their friends, especially to someone like me."

May patted Zinnia on the back, "Well, I know you had feelings for Ash even if you went to a lot of effort to hide them and since we were both victims of the same psychic pokémon I thought it would be unfair if I got my memories back and you didn't."

"That is one of the lamest reasons I've ever heard. Sweet but lame. Now why don't you tell me why a psychic pokémon is trying to keep girls away from Ash? He didn't catch a gardevoir of something like that did he?" Zinnia asked.

"This all started when someone I don't know about found that Ash was under the influence of psychic tampering and told the professor in the Alola region. They rang Ash's mum who wrote a note, which survived the psychic pokémon's cover up attempt. Then she rang my parents and a whole bunch of other people and things kind of just rolled on from there," explained May.

Zinnia stepped back to look May in the eye, "But why is a psychic type tracking Ash in the first place? Do you not know yet?"

"Well, um, dad's been on the phone all day to different people involved and one of them mentioned it having something to do with Ash being the chosen one or something," May shrugged.

"HE'S WHAT!" Zinnia screeched, "Why didn't you start with that? Even without my memories I would have payed attention to that. Hell, my Rayquaza would have payed attention to it even if I didn't know what it was."

"Does this chosen one stuff actually mean something to you?" asked May in surprise.

"YES it does May! Being the chosen one is a BLOODY DEATH sentence!" Zinnia yelled.

"What do you mean death sentence," yelped May and Lisia in unison.

"I don't have time to explain all the reasons," said Zinnia as she turned around, "Let's just say that it's a miracle that Ash is still alive. He's probably ONLY still alive because they have no one to replace him with. A chosen one is put through lots of suicidal events so it's not unusual for them to fail and die in the process. Legendary pokémon are more then capable of arranging for someone who just died to be revived but they won't bother if they have another person to fill the same roll. They'd also send him on a lot more missions with much higher risks if they didn't have to manage him so carefully. You have no idea how many messed up people and doomsday devices are out there."

May and Lisia followed Zinnia as she picked up her lantern and marched back toward Norman who was searching for his remaining pokémon with a torchlight.

"I wanted to free Ash from the psychic pokémon that's been manipulating him but are you saying he's actually going to be killed," exclaimed May.

"Well . . . no. They don't deliberately kill off chosen ones and Arceus devotes a lot of major resources to manage them but trainers just don't compare to the warriors of old. Immortals might be happy to fine tune the system an infinite number of times but they don't like overhauling anything," Zinnia elaborated, "I give full credit to Ash for surviving for this long but back in the days when the system was invented they picked people with actual combat training like Sir Aaron. Kids just don't learn those kinds of survival skills anymore. Both you and I have both seen what lengths Ash is willing to go to so I'm sure he meets all their expectations but legendary pokémon have expectations of human capability that society just can't match anymore.

Add on to that the extremely rapid advancements in science, not for the everyday person but for those with real money behind them. The legendary pokémon keep drastically underestimating this technology when they set systems up because they're just not used to rapid changes. So when the powers that be arrange for someone whose capabilities they've probably overestimated to go up against a villain who they most certainly have underestimated then it leads to death scenarios pretty quickly. Tell me May, have you ever heard of team plasma?"

"Uh, no?" May replied as she recalled her Glaceon and her father started giving her a look over to see if she was all right.

Zinnia gestured for them to follow her back to her village and continued her explanation, "Well this psycho appeared in Unova a while back and tried to create this revolution through the fairly peaceful means of convincing stupid people that they would be better off without pokémon in their lives. The whole thing blew up in his face when Zekrom appointed a champion and basically curb stomped his forces and revealed him to be a massive fraud. Anyway, he got away while most of his minions took the fall. Then two years later his group shows up again completely rebranded. Only this time they're back with guns."

May and Lisia gasped in horror while Norman grumbled that he would have to explain to Max why he would NEVER be allowed to go to America in terms Max would accept.

"The international police cracked down on them real hard so the whole organization was dead and buried in six months but can you imagine what it would be like for a person with normal pokémon to go up against that? Legendary pokémon don't really understand because half of them are bullet proof and preside over rocks and stuff but the rest of society and the wildlife are just massacred. That's why I think being the chosen one is a death sentence. I've already lost Aster to this world order crap and I don't want to lose Ash too," Zinnia finished.

"How exactly do you plan on doing that," said Norman with clear dislike. No, he certainly wasn't holding a grudge against the black dragon that was hovering over their heads, not at all.

"Once your pokémon are treated at the village we're going straight to where Ash is. I don't care what your friends have planned to rescue him, the sooner I can personally guarantee his safety with my Rayquaza and Salamence the better," replied Zinnia, "We'll beat the crap out of this psychic chaperone and then interrogate it to find out what the future agenda is. If it doesn't know, well . . . I guess it outlived its' usefulness then. Worse comes to worst, Rayquaza will allow us to take Ash out of the region so he won't be in any danger."

Lisia piped up, "I think that maybe we should meet up with the main group first or immediately after getting there. This psychic pokémon doesn't exactly need to be in line of sight to wipe our memory. I do not want to forget about Ash and May again."

"I'll ask the elders about shielding techniques but one way or another, Rayquaza will be taking us to Ash," said Zinnia with finality.


	6. Chapter 6: First Impressions part 1

The poll is closed. It was a landslide victory of over 75% for harem member Verity. Also this chapter has several characters without official names. I've skirted around it like I did with Angie's parents but if anyone wants to suggest last names for the girls I would appreciate it. Preferably fan consensus names (like Maple for May) but any name that has some decent logic behind it would be nice. This doesn't mean I will use the suggestion but having something sure beats the pants off writing 'said so&so's dad' over and over.

I do not own pokémon as it belongs to The Pokémon Company, Game Freak and Nintendo. Long may they reign!

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Chapter 6: First Impressions part 1

Under the brilliant moon of Alola two mighty beings floated hundreds of metres above the sea.

'Tapu Koko, you're being unreasonable. You know full well that Ash is not supposed to have any legendary pokémon in his possession,' projected Mewtwo telepathically.

The Tapu of Melemele gestured wildly and gave a rude serious of chirps.

'The lack of a rule that says he can't doesn't mean that he should. We don't have a rule for it because no legendary in their right mind would allow themselves to be captured so easily. Add on Ash's temperament and catching tendencies meant that there wasn't a need for such a rule. Now kindly move aside so I can deal with the Cosmog situation,' Mewtwo responded.

Tapu Koko folded its' arms and gave a haughty coo.

Mewtwo's eyebrow twitched, 'Just because I didn't have time to stop it does not mean it's a precedence that should be allowed. The outsider didn't exactly give either of us warning before he spontaneously decided to do that. And don't pretend you weren't watching.'

Tapu Koko blew a razz berry and made several more gestures.

'No, that is not ok. You may be one of Cosmog's appointed parental guardians but that does not give you the final say in this matter. Just because it isn't my exact jurisdiction does not void my involvement either. I am the official first responder for all matters regarding the chosen one. He is NOT supposed to have a legendary pokémon, regardless of its' current strength, so whether or not you think it's more convenient for protecting Alola is beside the point.' Replied Mewtwo.

The island guardian blew another razz berry and gave him the Tapu equivalent of the finger.

'Oh? You're logging an official protest now,' Mewtwo hummed, 'That might buy you time but the result will inevitably fall in my favour. Don't think I don't know what you and the other Tapus are up to. The chosen one belongs to the world so trying to tie him down to the Alola region by giving him a legendary and trying to set him up with a local girl won't work. Solgaleo and Lunala's preference for this region may weaken the dimensional walls enough to make it the first entry point for intruders but that is not enough grounds to make the chosen one stay here permanently.'

With an elaborate twirl Tapu Koko cooed again.

Mewtwo snorted derisively, 'Invalid argument. There are plenty of human males who have had rich and fulfilling lives without a female attached to the hip. Part of the reason why I took this job was to ensure that Ash could still have that while fulfilling his role. Can you imagine his current emotional state if Arceus had assigned someone like Yveltal to get rid of the girls in his life. Every time he got close to someone that bird would show up and kill them. My way is much better.'

Tapu Koko gave a shrug and shook it's head, muttering something that translated roughly to pitying clones for not understanding the joys of romance. Mewtwo decided to ignore the jab.

'If those are all the arguments you wish to present then I will go to submit your complaint. In the mean time, do make sure the outsider doesn't unintentionally cause any more trouble. For your own sake at least,' projected Mewtwo before he teleported away.

The Fairy gave a loud razz berry that translated to 'good riddens' before flying back to its' shrine. Now that the watchdog was gone they could have some real fun tomorrow.

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Meteor Falls, Hoenn

"I am so, so sorry about all this," repeated Zinnia for the umpteenth time as she helped May bandage her pokémon.

"It's okay. I already accepted your apology," smiled May, "You don't need to keep beating yourself up over it."

The two of them were in Zinnia's 'house', which was a very spacious tribal tent complete with modern comforts and some high-tech devices that May didn't recognise.

"I just – well when you recognised my voice before I kinda panicked. Not panic panicked but I was expecting a swat team to show up or something. Our village is way of course for tourists, explorers or anyone else that might be snooping around. When someone comes this deep they are either hopelessly lost or asking for trouble. Since you didn't run the other way when Rayquaza did it's big glowy eyed monster routine and your dad is Norman I just assumed you were the later," Zinnia explained.

"I know, you've told me that already. Is my dad really that scary," chuckled May.

"No . . . I suppose he isn't. But I have seen what a first class gym leader like Volkner can do when they are on official business. Volkner is pretty scary. Your dad is a second class gym leader, which isn't that much difference. The older the gym leader, the more likely they are to be sent on anti terrorist activities and the less qualms they have with brutal fighting tactics," sighed Zinnia.

"For the record, I can hear both of you," Norman added from the other side of the tent.

"Sorry dad. I'm just trying to understand how someone can find you threatening. It's hard to wrap my head around," May replied.

"Hey Zinnia, do you have anything to eat in this tent other than supermarket junk food and military rations," asked Lisia as she rifled through a makeshift cupboard.

"Not unless you want to eat fried zubat," Zinnia remarked, "The power generator I have is powered by intermittent electric attacks so it's no good for something like a fridge. The tribe doesn't like interacting with the outside world that much so they're not big on technology. In fact everything I have in here is something I had to argue with the tribe elders to bring in. Before I was allowed to leave for my missions I had no idea how much I was missing out on. Stupid old geezers."

"You're kidding," Lisia gasped, "I know that this place is in a dead zone and everything outside is lit with torches but are you saying you had no technology what so ever."

"Only the necessities and by that I really do mean just the necessities. The first time I had a hot shower was when I went under cover in Team Aqua. We have top notch medicine but other than that this place is pretty backwards. Considering my parents have passed away, the elders probably would have married me off to someone already if I hadn't been acknowledged by Rayquaza. They have a lot of trouble trying to keep the reigns on the younger generation these days."

"I can imagine," sighed May as she finished Blaziken's bandages and gave it some oran berries.

Lisia continued to rifle through Zinnia's food stocks, "Do you at least have something low calorie. I have travel supplies but it's not practical to eat them while at a settlement."

"What's a calorie?" asked Zinnia.

May and Lisia's jaws dropped. Norman just face palmed and waited for the ensuing explosion.

"I call bull. How can you have a figure like that and not know how to diet," May screeched.

"If this is all you eat then you should be as round as a beach ball. Please tell me you at least eat it in moderation," Lisia whined.

"Er, no not really. I go through six of those noodle cups a day with the military rations on top to provide extra energy while I train. I've never actually thought about dieting," came Zinnia's slightly confused reply.

"That's not fair," wept May.

"Totally not fair," cried Lisia.

"While they're busy moping, I'd like to see if you can add to the information I've collected today," Norman interjected, "Prof. Oak has told me that the pokémon responsible for modifying all three of your memories is called Mewtwo."

"Oh man, that pokémon," Zinnia complained loudly.

"You're familiar with it?" asked Norman.

"Nope. Never met the thing. But I've heard a lot about it from Rayquaza and rumours in the underworld," started Zinnia as she picked up Aster and hugged it close, "Good thing too, according to the rumours that's one nasty pokémon. Gave both the Rayquazas huge trouble when it hijacked the whole global weather system awhile back. Ridiculously strong psychic type made by one of the big crime syndicates. Don't know which group since whenever they make one it escapes and completely levels the research facility that created it.

People, documentation, defence systems, the whole lot. Rumours also say that the ones that came after, could be one, could be twenty depending on the rumour, absolutely none of them compare to the original. What ever that first scientist did to make a pokémon that strong has never been replicated. Not Genesect, not Type: Null, nothing. Rayquaza also says he's a real git during meetings."

"I'm sorry," Norman interrupted, "Legendary pokémon have meetings?"

"Just the big shots, I don't know how it works. Rayquaza just meditates or takes a nap and then grumbles about it afterwards. That's all I know about Mewtwo. Sorry I couldn't help more," Zinnia replied as she nuzzled her pokémon.

The conversation continued with May and Lisia eventually joining in. Topics included how to deal with Mewtwo, Ash, what Alola was like and a few questions as to why Zinnia may have destroyed certain government or corporate facilities. While Hoenn seemed to be on the nicer end of the spectrum, May, Norman and Lisia were less then impressed at what big wigs with money had apparently been up to behind closed doors.

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Viridian airport, Kanto

Hilda yawned as she went through the last of the security with Cilan, Rosa, Bianca, Yancy and a few of their family members that had insisted they tag along. Their flight had left just after dark and had essentially chased the sunset to arrive in Kanto after dark. The jet lag was murder but the air was cleaner here so that was nice. Cilan still had his usual chipper immaculate presentation, which was starting to get irksome. He'd been the only one who had slept on the plane since the girls had been partly excited at going to another country, part terrified that they wouldn't remember Ash if they fell asleep. Particularly Bianca since she was the only one who had been targeted while asleep.

"Cilan, over hear," called a familiar voice.

The group turned to see Iris waving at them next to a guy with spiky brown hair.

"Iris it's good to see your feeling better," Cilan greeted as they approached the two.

"I see you didn't have any problems finding or convincing them," Iris deadpanned.

"What's that supposed to mean," Hilda snapped. The tiredness was really getting to her.

"Now, now let's not fight. Everyone's pretty exhausted so let's save the banter for after everyone slept," Cilan placated.

"Right, my name's Gary. This is a few more people than we were expecting. Which one has the Zoroark?" said the aforementioned Gary.

"That would be me," yawned Rosa, "And who are you exactly?"

"I'm one of Ash's childhood friends from Pallet. I've got a driver's license so I volunteered to take you guys back to Gamp's lab. You know, considering how dense that guy is, I'm really surprised so many girls fell for him," Gary chuckled.

Hilda glanced at Iris, "Well I suppose five is a lot."

"Pfft, five? And the rest," Gary chuckled.

Hilda, Bianca and Yancy shuddered at the sudden malevolent auras behind them.

"I am so glad I don't have over protective family members," Rosa muttered as the other three turned slowly to face the family member that had come with them.

"My, my. You do seem to have the worst luck when it comes to romance Hilda. First that green haired stalker and now you've fallen for a playboy," said Hilda's Mother with a disconcerting smile.

"Indeed. While Ash didn't seem like the type when I met him, it's certainly starting to look that way isn't it," added Bianca's Father.

"Yancy, if this guy is taking advantage of you then he and I are going to have some serious words," commented Yancy's older Brother.

Cilan then jumped in to intervene, "Everyone please! Let's be reasonable about this. We're all here because Ash needs help. I'm sure there will be plenty of time to sort out romance and potential relationships after the fighting is over. Come on Gary, back me up here."

"I bet fifty bucks that the girls will have a cat fight before sunrise," smirked Gary.

Cilan gaped at Gary before turning to Iris who grinned impishly at him, "Don't look at me. There's no way I'm waiting till the fighting over before telling Ash how I feel."

Fortunately for our intrepid gym leader, Rosa decided to spare her friend Yancy from her over protective older brother by pulling her towards the exit. With the atmosphere broken the rest followed Gary to the van Prof. Oak had loaned him for the trip. Once they were all inside the van, Rosa decided to start up a conversation with Gary to keep herself awake and also to steer things away from topics that would provoke Yancy brother and the two adults in the van.

"So Gary, what's professor Oak like? He's pretty famous even in Unova," Rosa prodded.

"Meh, gramps is great and pretty easy going I guess but are you sure you want to spend your time asking me about my grandfather," Gary answered.

"What do you mean?" came Rosa's perplexed reply.

Gary grinned before replying, "Well when we get there in about ten minutes you're going to be meeting Ash's mum for the first time so I would've assumed that would have been foremost on your mind."

All five girls instantly paled and any trace of sleepiness promptly died under a rising sense of dread. Dear ARCEUS, they weren't ready to meet Ash's MOTHER. A girl was supposed to have warning about this. Time to rehearse a perfect introduction, time to apply make up and dress in a way that would make them look sophisticated and smart. Time to practice the local customs so they didn't make a fool out of themselves. There were so many things a girl was supposed to do first instead of showing up on the doorstep looking like a sleep deprived zombie!

Gary burst out laughing, "I'm so glad this van has a backseat camera for monitoring pokémon. The looks on your faces are just priceless."

"I don't feel so good," murmured Yancy.

"Maybe she won't be at the lab. Then we can at least get some sleep," mumbled Bianca with swirls in her eyes.

"Oh relax will you. Delia has never had a go at any girl that's travelled with Ash. I'm sure you'll be fine. It's his Bayleef you have to watch out for. It's gotten real antsy with different people showing up on top of not getting picked to go to Alola," Gary placated.

"That's easy for you to say! Your entire love life might not be depending on the next twenty minutes," Hilda burst out.

Gary whistled, "You girls have real bad for Ash don't you. I'm definitely gonna get my fifty bucks."

"Hey, I never agreed to that bet," Cilan called out.

"Yeah but Tracey was stupid enough to," replied Gary.

"Can't you just give us some pointers," Rosa asked.

"Sure, Bayleef likes peanuts," smirked Gary.

"You KNOW what I mean," Rosa snapped back.

"Yeah, yeah I know. Just trying to lighten the mood is all. Everyone's been getting so tense," Gary shrugged as he turned onto the road that would lead to Pallet town.

"So tell us something about Ash's mum," asked Bianca.

"What? Are you kidding me? None of the other girls that met Delia had any information so I don't see why you should," laughed Gary, "This thing's only fun to watch while I'm on the outside. If I start playing favourites then I'll get pulled right into the middle of this."

Cilan sighed, "When Ash brought you up in conversations he said you were a lot more mature."

"Sorry guys, hard to pass up a life times worth of blackmail after all," Gary said.

The rest of the car trip continued with Gary commenting on random things while the Unovan girls tried to extract information out of him. When they arrived, Cilan helped Gary get out of the car using his crutches and they rang the doorbell. Bulbasaur answered, using its' vines to open the door.

"No means no Bulbasaur. I've already explained my reasoning so being extra helpful isn't going to cut it," lectured Gary sternly.

"Bulba, bul, bulbasaur," replied the reptile defiantly.

Gary's Umbreon bristled next to him.

"Just a minute," called Delia.

Iris recognised the voice and fidgeted since while she had spoken to Delia on the phone, meeting her in person would be another matter.

Delia came to the doorway with a smile, "Why hello Bulbasaur, thankyou for getting the door. I see your back Gary with- Oh my, that's a lot of people. I'm not sure we will have enough room for them at the lab. Let's see, I recognize Cilan from the video call and you must be Iris. I'm going to take a guess and say that you are Bianca. Ash mentioned that you travelled with him for a short time. However I'm afraid I don't know who the rest of you are."

Hilda's mum stepped forward to shake hands, "Hello, Mrs Ketchum I believe. I'm Mrs White and this is my daughter Hilda."

"H-hi," Hilda mumbled as she tried to hide her face with her cap, which caused Delia to chuckle lightly.

"I, um, I'm Rosa and this is my friend Yancy and her older brother, er, what was your name again," questioned Rosa.

"How rude," exclaimed said individual.

"What, it's not my fault Yancy deliberately never used other names," Rosa replied defensively.

The two got into an argument that dragged Yancy in which caused the adults to sigh.

"Ah, to be young. So much boundless energy," Delia smiled, "Now you must be Bianca's father since your standing protectively next to her."

"That would be correct," said the man, "My daughter has developed a crush on your son but unlike Mrs White I've already seen enough to make up my mind on the matter. Bianca is only 18 so I'm sure you can understand that she's too young to be dating boys. We're here so she can say her goodbyes and to allow me to have a word with your son about how taking advantage of young inexperienced girls is wrong and that he needs to stop being a playboy."

Delia's kind smile slid off her face and was replaced with a haunting glare that made the air at least three times more malevolent than what had occurred at the airport.

"What did you just call my son?" she asked in a hollow voice that chilled everyone's bones and had Bulbasaur racing in the other direction.

"I-I, er, I-" stuttered Bianca's father as he tried very hard not to soil himself.

"I know Ash may attract a lot of attention but I can assure you that I have raised him to be a kind and respectful individual. He is a brash and a little more reckless with his own safety then I would like but he is certainly not a playboy," continued Delia, "If you don't want your daughter interacting with my son, that's perfectly fine. You can just go back to Unova. Cilan got in touch with your family out of common decency but you don't actually NEED to be here. I'm sure Ash would be perfectly happy with one of the other girls he met on his travels. However right now my son needs help and I'm not going to waste my time or his on someone who is going to give him a meaningless lecture that he probably wouldn't understand for something he hasn't even done."

Bianca had anime tears trailing down her face, "M-Mrs Ketchum I'm really sorry about what my dad said. Please don't stop me from seeing Ash and telling him how I feel. I came to help and I'm really, really sorry."

Delia snapped back to her smiling warm demeanour, "So long as we're on the same page then everything will be fine. I'm sure Ash will be delighted to see you again. Come in, I baked cookies."

Ash's mom went into the interior, as the group remained temporarily rooted to the spot.

"Arceus's holy shit! I haven't seen her that mad since I was six," Gary exclaimed.

Mrs White leaned forward and yanked the older man's ear, "Next time try not to insult someone's parenting to their face. Let's see what the boy's like before forming opinions ok."

"Mum? I thought you didn't like Ash," blurted Hilda in surprise.

Her mother just sighed, "No Hilda. I just know that the first and last time you had any involvement with someone, you were a real mess afterwards. Then the boy's psychopath of an adopted father came after you. Then you got put in witness protection but still got attacked anyway and decided that the witness protection wasn't good enough so you went completely off the grid. I wasn't able to see you for two years Hilda. Not a picture, not a word. I'm scared it's going to happen again if you get involved with the wrong boy. So I'm here to see what you may have overlooked and make sure he and his family have their heads on straight."

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Unknown location, Kalos  
(Otherwise known in other worlds as victory road or at least the entrance to it)

"What do you mean 'we're not aloud in'," yelled Serena.

"Sorry mam but this area is completely off limits on account of vicious pokémon," replied the burly bodyguard.

"I'm the leader of the Lumiose gym. I can authorise access can't I?" said Clemont, "My friend's Greninja is in their and we need to retrieve it."

A second burly league official at the checkpoint gate looked at his tablet, "It says here that you're a fourth class gym leader. No can do sir."

"But I was a second class before I had my Clembot take over," Clemont argued.

"Sorry kid, only the champion, an elite four member or a first class gym leader AKA the people with win ratios of 90% or higher are allowed in here," shrugged the first guard, "If some random trainer's pokémon so happened to wander in here then I can guarantee that it would have been ripped apart and eaten within an hour."

"The Greninja detector only picks up a live bio-signature," Clemont countered as he pointed to his handheld device.

"I don't know what that stupid looking thing is and frankly I just don't care. No means no so move along now. Surely kids these days have better things to do then try to get into the most dangerous place in the region so they can get eaten," frowned the guard.

The group fell back for a group huddle with Trevor being the first to speak, "Ok so maybe we should skip Greninja. I'm sure Ash has plenty of strong pokémon under professor Oak's care that can be brought to Alola and we do have Goodra already."

"Can't we just get in contact with Diantha," Shauna queried.

Serena sighed, "I'm sure she'd be willing to help but getting in touch is the major problem."

"Greninja probably went to this place after helping squishy so that it could get stronger for Ash," Bonnie added, "We can't just leave it there when the time for its' strength has come."

"Do you think we could beat the guards?" asked Miette.

"Not a chance," Trevor countered, "They will either have really high level pokémon or some form of automated restraining system built into the gate. I've seen hazardous places get marked with nothing but wooden do not enter signs before. This is a two-way checkpoint gate. Nothing gets in and more importantly: nothing gets out. This place must be way more dangerous then just some rampaging ghost type."

"Right then! Does anyone have an elite four member who owes them a favour?" Serena questioned.


	7. Chapter 7: First Impressions part 2

Hello, hello, it's been a long time and no, I do not feel remotely guilty. Several factors resulted in the delay. I went on holiday for two week without Internet to cross reference things. Then I had another two weeks with next to no Internet while trying to catch up on all the events I had missed including the start of the new anime season. I had a lot of trouble with the first scene of this chapter since I wanted an argument that would actually be about relevant relationship points rather then just mud slinging. All of that combined with a very busy real life schedule results in this delay. I will repeat again: I do not feel remotely guilty.

Anyone who has checked my profile will have noted the warning about chapters being irregular. I write when the circle of 'I have free time' overlaps with the 'I feel like doing something creative right now' circle. I like writing and I like to produce content at regular intervals but I'm rather busy right now so that means slower chapters.

On a separate note: I've had a beta request. So that means I am officially opening the position of beta reader for As Arceus Decrees It. I'm not fully familiar with the process yet so I don't know whether I can/should/will have multiple beta readers but we'll see how things go. I will give you the same application testing procedure I gave the applicant:

(1) I would consider the users past beta experience and hopefully ask for and get the opinions of people they have beta'd (I'm not sure how you spell it) for.

(2) Language is also a factor. My chapters would need to be correct to Australian standards, which differs slightly from America in spelling etcetera.

(3) The third major aspect is that I'm a very stubborn person. I love new ideas and I'm more then happy to look at mistakes I have made but I won't take kindly to a beta who tries to change the course of my story. It is mine and it will go the way I want it to go. Adding new or enhancing existing aspects is good but I will decide the overall direction of it. If you understand this and are willing to put up with my underlying stubbornness then you pass the first threshold.

(4) As far as testing goes, I think it would be more productive if I have a beta that I can consult with if I have technical difficulties. Back in chapter four I said that the chapter was partially delayed because I was working on some bonus content. It is my intention to release character profiles as a separate 'story' to celebrate reaching 100 reviewers, followers and favourites. Since this threshold has almost been reached, I have run into a minor problem. The word document I have utilises the tab key to create columns for a character's list of pokémon. Without the columns, the list of pokémon would take up to much space and be rather unsightly. The first half of the task is to tell me how one would create adjacent columns (or a table) if it is actually possible on this site (It might not be). The second half is special characters. I have seen other authors with black boxes and superscript TM in their chapters and I would like to be able to do the same thing (with a star icon specifically).

I will try to finalise my evaluation before I publish my next pokémon chapter but that will take some time and I may not be able to. Please be patient and by all means make suggestions on how to get around my technical issues even if you don't want to apply for beta. All feedback is welcome.

Last point: I have two more theories I'd like to share (because I know how much you love reading authors notes instead of the actual story :P )

Baby pokémon breeding theory  
As any competent gamer should know, baby pokémon are ones that cannot be bread under normal circumstances and usually require one of the parents to hold an incense. It's a neat game mechanic that forces you to use the day care to complete the pokédex but I'd like to take a moment to hypothesise what it means from a biology point of view. This theory, unlike the others, has a lot more chance of someone coming up with it first but I'd like to state it anyway.

Being able to hatch offspring at two different stages of development can have a number of advantages from an evolutionary survival point of view. Under normal circumstances I'd say that most of the pokémon would skip over the baby stage or their life cycle completely. However, in times of famine or when winter could cut a breeding season short, it would be very advantages to induce a shorter pregnancy which produces an egg that could hatch faster (I don't know that game stats. I'm just assuming that smaller offspring hatch faster) from which emerges a pokémon that is fully developed, smaller and therefore requires less food to survive. Granted a pichu is easier to kill then a pikachu but two pikachus and their baby pichu have a better chance then two pikachus and their immobile egg against a predator.

History of evolution theory  
Everyone knows that Mew is the evolutionary ancestor of about 99% of the pokémon out there. Pokédex entries (like Raichu's) and the anime also occasionally reference non-pokémon life forms (more so in the old days). It can also be safely assumed that humans evolved in the pokémon universe rather then entering from somewhere else.

From this we can conclude that evolution (of the scientific kind) happens the same way it does in our world. Mew was awesome and completely outcompeted just about all the non-pokémon species to extinction. After all Mew can fly, swim, teleport, turn invisible and it's small size compensates for the higher metabolism its' smarter psychic brain would require. Earth animals didn't really stand a chance. After that the mew species diversified and essentially copied most of the extinct species to custom fit into each individual habitat (In a stable habitat it is well known that specialist species outcompete generalist species).

This then brings us to a fork in the road of pokémon evolution. Was the immortal trait of mew something it had from the early stages or something it got later? If the mew species got the trait later down the track then the issue is simple: The descendant of the mew species became less and less 'mewish' and some developed immortality (or something close to it). The mortal mews got old and died like normal species do and only the immortal minority remain to this day in their original form.

However if it is the former then something scarier is implied. If the mew species was immortal before they bred into speciality then the original population should still be around in much larger numbers. Immortals would keep sustaining themselves and producing more offspring that would probably inherit the same trait. Perhaps they hibernate in large numbers for long periods of time and the present time is simply in one of those lulls. Or perhaps . . . something killed them off.

Immortality is a practical evolutionary trait that would only disappear under three circumstances: overpopulation leading to complete starvation and extinction (highly unlikely), a building block for that immortality becoming too rare to sustain the trait or . . . something else that had an advantage in eating that immortal building block.

What I'm proposing is: what if Mew had a natural predator. It doesn't necessarily need to feed on a hypothetic immortality building block; maybe it just likes psychic pokémon in its' diet. Regardless of why exactly this creature would prey on mews, it would certainly explain why there are so few of such a powerful pokémon. But what could possibly hunt a mew. As stated before, Mew can fly, swim, teleport, turn invisible and basically out predict its' opponents moves with telepathy and attack with telekinesis. Whatever this hypothetical creature is, it is probably the ultimate predator.

Thanks again for reading the theories and do tell me what you think of their validity. If you want to share them on a chat room, please tell people where you read it. I don't really need credit but having people intentionally claim other people's ideas as their own leaves a bad taste in my mouth so have some courtesy or tell me if you saw a dated post somewhere that was smart enough to come up with these theories before me.

I do not own pokémon as it belongs to The Pokémon Company, Game Freak and Nintendo. Long may they reign!

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Chapter 7: First Impressions part 2

Oak's Lab, Kanto

Silence pervaded the living room as the five Japanese girls in pyjamas stared at the five American girls in the doorway.

"More girls? Really? I'm starting to get fed up of these new arrivals," said Leaf aridly from her wheelchair.

Hilda's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, "I see you weren't kidding when you made that off handed comment back at the airport Gary."

"Gary, if you hired those two actors just to freak us out, I swear I'll-" started Dawn who still had puffy eyes from her teary reunion with her mother an hour prior.

"E-easy everyone," cut in Bianca frantically, "All of us are hear to help save Ash from Mewtwo so we need to get along. Why don't we start with introductions. My name is Bianca and I'm from Unova. I travelled with Ash a bit and we both competed in the Unova league."

She then gestured at Dawn who nodded, "Hi, I'm Dawn and I'm a coordinator and part time professional fashion pokémon fashion designer."

Bianca's hopes of a peaceful introduction were promptly dashed as most of the girls decided to use this as a chance to one up each other. Why did pokémon trainers as a rule have to be so competitive?

"I'm Rosa and as a few of you have already guessed I've starred in a few movies on top of my participation in the league circuit," proclaimed the Unovan proudly

Leaf snorted, "Anyone can compete in a league. I on the other hand have actually won the Kanto one."

"Still not something you should be boasting about," said Hilda as she examined her nails for added effect, "Especially considering I'm the reigning champion of the Unova region."

"Ok, ok we get it! Your all very talented trainers who are all very proud of your accomplishments," cut in Angie, "Now can we be civil or is showing off really more important to you then Ash's situation."

The others looked guilty while Gary muttered, "So close."

Anabel yawned, "We'll handle introductions later. It's late and as you can see, everyone here has already changed into pyjamas so you might want to do the same once Gary leaves the room. The parents are occupying the guest rooms so we'll be sleeping here. Gary, can you lead the girl with the Zoroark to your grandfather."

Gary nodded and led Rosa out of the room as Delia passed by them, "Sorry for the wait. Now don't eat too many of the cookies because Brock is apparently preparing some late dinner since he knew that the plane food wouldn't be that appetising. The rest of the girls kindly offered to wait so you can all eat together, isn't that wonderful."

The girls all gave murmurs of acknowledgement and thanks with a few guilty looks. Once Rosa had come back and the girls had all changed, Brock showed up with a heavenly smelling creamy stew of some kind and distributed bowls for everyone. They were left to their own devices while the older people (and the guys that were too uncomfortable to be surrounded by girls) had dinner in the main dining room so they talked about a few harmless topics for a little while before Misty broached a more delicate topic.

"So how long have you girls known Ash? And I don't mean how long since you first met him, I mean how long have you actually spent time with him?" she asked innocently.

"Uh, well . . . I'm sure it would have been longer if Mewtwo hadn't interfered," Hilda fidgeted. Everyone could tell where this conversation was going.

"How LONG?" repeated Misty, not wanting to put up with airy-fairy answers.

"A bit under a week," Hilda answered, "Rosa and Yancy for less then that."

"That's a long way to travel for an everyday crush, don't you think?" said Leaf.

Rosa bristled, "My feelings are more then just a crush."

Misty sighed, "I'm sure your feelings are very special but it takes a lot more than just a week to fall in love with somebody. I travelled with Ash for more then two years and it still took me a while after that to figure out I was really in love with him."

"What exactly are you implying," Hilda snapped.

Dawn shrugged, "I don't really know Leaf well enough yet but I think the point she and Misty are trying to get at is that some of us have invested a lot of time in getting to know Ash. It's a little insulting to have someone who has really only just met him claim to have equal right to him when it comes to love."

"That's hardly fair," exclaimed Rosa, "Mewtwo wiped our memories so we didn't even get the opportunity to travel with him."

"Some of us already had obligations that we couldn't abandon," added Yancy shyly.

"It's fine," Leaf waved casually, "We appreciate the help but just don't get to disappointed ok. Ash helps every person under the sun so even if your meeting with him was really special to you, it would have been just another day on the road for him. He can't possibly remember everyone he's helped so don't go to far for a stranger. I can pretty much guarantee that he is going to choose someone who he's spent at least a year with."

"E-even if Ash has forgotten me, even if he only saw me as a bumbling amateur, I'm still not going to give up," said Bianca with an adorable look of determination, "Be it ten, a hundred or even a thousand years, I'm going to keep trying until I can be someone worthy of gaining Ash's attention."

Misty rubbed her brow in frustration, "That wasn't what I was getting at."

"Then what were you trying to say," said Hilda, crossing her arms, "because it certainly seemed like the three of you were on the attack."

"Look, if you've known Ash for any length of time then you should know that he can be rather . . . dense when it comes to romance," Misty explained, "I don't know how much is just normal him and how much can be blamed on Mewtwo but when we show up it's going to be very hard on him. Ash doesn't have any romantic experience so he won't really know how to cope with lots of people vying of his undivided affection.

All of us will be pushing for an answer he really isn't ready to give and I don't want to put him through that any more then I have to. If your feelings are genuine then . . . that's great I guess but if it's just a crush then please think of Ash first. There are people in this room who really do love him and want the best for him. Just . . . try not to be selfish about this. Love is more then just wanting someone."

Hilda pursed her lips in thought, "I understand what you're saying and I can assure you that my feelings are genuine. My time with Ash might have been short but we went through a lot together. It was stressful, crazy and down right scary but I know there was a connection. Maybe for him it really was just platonic but I sincerely doubt any of you have made more progress. If you had then Mewtwo would have intervened and Ash just would have started traveling with someone else."

Leaf and Dawn gawked at this but it was Iris who took the most offense, "WELL excuse ME for not being a needy clingy girl who bats her eyes to make Men swoon. Maybe it had nothing to do with how long we knew him. Maybe Mewtwo just got rid of you for having an enormous bouncing chest."

"I-Iris, I wasn't trying to imply-," stammered Hilda before Leaf cut her off.

"No, no, Iris's theory actually has merit," she smiled mischievously, "As Ash's age group rose, Mewtwo does appear to have intervened more often so maybe the distinction was just based on appearance rather than actual emotional level."

"Oh I cannot believe you just said that," Rosa shouted.

"ENOUGH," yelled Angie, "It doesn't really what or why Mewtwo did what it did. What matters is our feelings. Now I know I haven't spent as much time with Ash as some of you but personally I feel that it's not how long you were with some one but rather that your feelings that endure, even if you are apart, no matter how long you are apart."

Anabel nodded, "I agree."

Leaf shrugged, "Tell yourselves whatever you like but since I knew Ash first and for the longest, I'm the one he is going to end up with. After all, movies always show the childhood friends reuniting and living happily ever after in the end."

"THAT'S IT! I've had it with you!" screeched Hilda as she lunged at Leaf and the two tumbled to the ground.

"All right break it up," said Misty as she quickly got to her feet. Then a stray shoe hit her in the face. Her expression flipped from annoyed to aggro in a millisecond, "Gyarados, drown them with hydro pump!"

Chaos promptly ensued. Off to the side of the room several people came in to investigate the mayhem. Gary coughed and held out his hand smugly. Tracey sighed and forked over the promised fifty. Delia then yanked both of their ears disapprovingly. The fight proceeded unimpeded for nearly ten minutes before Prof. Oak gave up and let Bulbasaur dowse all the girls with sleep powder.

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Lumiose City, Kalos

"You know, I don't normally allow people to just show up and sit down while I'm eating dinner," said Diantha to Serena and her friends.

"I'm really sorry about interrupting your night out but this is really urgent," Serena apologised.

"You don't have to worry about the media showing up either Ms Diantha," boasted Clemont, "I used one of my special gadgets to calculate which restaurant you were most likely to be dining at so no one else knows you're here."

"It's alright, I don't mind," sighed Diantha before muttering under her breath, "So long as you sign an agreement not to give that device to the media."

"Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou Diantha! You have no idea how much this means to me," Serena exclaimed.

The champion smiled at their youthful enthusiasm, "So, what can I do to help? You said it was urgent?"

So the group of teens (and Bonnie) launched into an explanation about Ash, his status as the chosen one, how the mysterious Mewtwo was preventing people from getting close to Ash and finally how Serena desperately wanted to find Ash's Greninja so that they could all work together to rescue Ash from Mewtwo (and his associates).

Diantha blinked as their story came to a close, "Well that's a lot to take in. Do you mind if I make some phone calls to double check on this 'chosen one' thing?"

"Not at all, we are the ones coming for your help after all," nodded Serena.

Excusing herself to a secluded area in the restaurant, Diantha quickly dialled the phone number of her manager/assistant Kathi Lee, "Hello Kathi, I was wondering if you could double check a few things for me? No, it shouldn't be anything serious, just a quick history check. Could you access what information we have about the chosen one? Yes . . . yes . . . I see. That's very interesting. Do you have any information on who the chosen one could be? You don't? Can I ask who is in charge of managing the information on the chosen one? Really? The director of the G-Men? Thankyou for that Kathi, that will be all for tonight."

Huffing to herself, Diantha practically punched in the next number into her phone.

"Hello,"

"LANCE YOU ASSHOLE!" she yelled into the phone, "How could you have known about Ash being the CHOSEN ONE for at least FIVE YEARS and not have had the courtesy to tell me my region was going to turn into a potential WAR ZONE."

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Melemele Island, Alola  
(A/N: Due to the Butterfree Effect, the following event happens a day or so before it would have in the anime.)

J stared at the scene before him and felt his eyebrow begin to twitch in annoyance. Yesterday Ash had asked Prof. Kukui about the highest locations in the Alolan region because he wanted to use his pidgeot flute. The Professor had suggested that the best place would be Mount Lanakila but unfortunately access was restricted. So J had volunteered to make it possible and pulled some strings so that the group would be able to go this morning. Since this had essentially been the result of his gift (the flute), he had graciously offered to arrange for some rental hiking gear since none of the students nor the Professor seemed to know much about hiking (at least by his standards). Now here he was, having dragged the very heavy (and rather expensive) hiking bags to the school so that they could go nice and early and here they were: SLEEPING.

Strewn about the ground with squiggly drawings all over their faces slept Ash, his friends (minus Lillie) and the two professors. Now it should be noted that J was in no way a cruel person; he was, on the other hand, rather vindictive. So, without a shred of guilt, he held a heavy hiking bag out at arms length and dropped it on Ash's stomach.

"AARRGH! _*Cough, hack, cough, cough*_ ," came Ash's reply, "What was that for?!"

"Why do you think," replied J with oozing sarcasm.

Ash looked around, "Oh man, Jigglypuff put everyone to sleep again."

J just shrugged, "Not my problem. Do you still want to climb mount Lanakila or not?"

"Of course I want to climb that mountain. Just let me wake everyone up," Ash answered as he moved to rouse his friends before J decided to pull out an air horn.

Now awake, the group complained about the drawings on their faces and briefly explained what was going on.

"Jigggly, jiggly, jiggly!" cried the familiar fairy as it charged back to the group.

"Oh dear Arceus, it's back again," screamed Kiawe.

"Hey Ash, does that jigglypuff always carry that microphone?" asked J.

"Uh, yeah but-" said Ash before lunging forward and grabbing J's arm mid quick ball throw, "J what are you doing! You can't catch that jigglypuff. If you keep it around then we'd always be put to sleep every time you let it out to feed it."

"But it's carrying around an accessory. Pokémon that do that are really rare," J replied in innocent confusion to his blocked throw, "Why can't I catch it?"

Said puffball arrived and started abusing Komala for sending it flying.

"Because it will put everyone to sleep with its' sing attack, duh," lectured Mallow as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh please," waved J dismissively, "you make it sound like you've never listened to a jigglypuff's song before."

Everyone including the professors looked at him like an idiot. After a few moments J gained a look of dawning disbelief, "Wait a minute, are you saying that none of you, including the esteemed Prof. Oak, have ever listened to a jigglypuff song in full."

"Of course not. Everyone knows that listening to a pokémon use sing causes you to fall asleep," Lana replied in exasperation.

"So it never dawned on any of you to eat a chesto berry first. They're not exactly hard to obtain, especially in Alola," said J with equal exasperation.

The group went completely silent. Jigglypuff chased Komala round and round in circles.

"Excuse me for a minute," announced Prof. Oak, "I need to find a wall to bash my head into."

J face palmed, "Wow, ok . . . I'm going to purge the last minute from my memory so that I don't start treating all of you like five year olds. Then I'm going to make a smoothie out of chesto berries for all of us to drink and we will listen to the Jigglypuff before we go hiking. They really are beautiful to listen to guys. You have no idea what you've been missing out on."

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Akala Island, Alola

Lyra stepped out onto the balcony of the hotel room she had rented and stretched in the morning sunlight. After the confusing results of the DPRS and the long repetitively circular conversation with her parents to get approval for the scan in the first place, she had just enough time to pack some extra travel supplies before boarding her plane. How Celebi had purchased the ticket for her was still a mystery. Arriving in Alola late at night, Lyra had been lucky enough to be able to get into one of the hotels nearby. It was a tad expensive but being right in the middle of Alola's main tourist district, it was very luxurious. She had then promptly gone to bed and slept in for a good chunk of the morning.

Lifting her Marill onto the balcony ledge so it could enjoy the seaside view as well, Lyra went over the facts and clues she had so far. During Sinnoh some unknown pokémon had done the low ranking (2) but extremely complicated process of redirecting her feelings from Ash to Khoury. Then Celebi, who has a mysterious connection to her Pichu, delivers her the four items. Three seemed sequential: first the photo of Ash to get her attention, the receipt to remind her of her feelings for Ash and finally the plane ticket that would hopefully take her to Ash.

Celebi was a time traveller so the photo was definitely taken after she found him. The real questions were: why did Celebi want her to be reunited with Ash and what on earth was she supposed to do with the pendant. She was wearing it, just in case, but she would have preferred Celebi to be a little more explicit with the instructions. She also needed to know why a psychic type pokémon or its' owner would want to keep them apart. Was it them specifically or something to do with only one of them. If it was the later then she could safely assume it was Ash.

Lyra had done a little searching online while she was on the plane so she could find out what her rediscovered crush had been up to since they had parted. There was information, and very surprising information at that, but it had been tucked away. Events that should have made global headlines didn't really get reported beyond the immediate area. Ash's name typically came up in the blogs of some of the people who were grateful for his pivotal role in averting disaster yet he was more or less passed over by the paparazzi.

The mystery before her was a strange one but she felt excited. A possible life with Ash would definitely be an adventure beyond the mundane normality that others had offered her.

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One song that changed the fate of Jigglypuff kind and a ferry ride later.

Ula'ula Island, Alola

"This is so unfair," whined Sophocles for the hundredth time that morning.

"We heard you the first time," Mallow ground out through clenched teeth.

"Come on Sophocles, a manly exercise like this will help build up you muscles," said Kiawe, puffing out his chest to emphasise the point.

"It's only a 60 degree incline. If the terrain wasn't so rocky, you wouldn't even need the climbing ropes," nodded J in agreement.

"BUT your NOT even CLIMBING!" Sophocles exclaimed in frustrated exhaustion.

True to Sophocles point, while Ash, Prof. Kukui, Lana, Mallow, Kiawe and Sophocles were steadily hiking up the slope of Mount Lanakila with the aid of ropes, J was sitting cross-legged on top of a tentacruel. The water pokémon's many legs of adjustable length allowed it to easily remain level for its' trainer to sit on while effortlessly scaling the slope at the same pace as its' fellow mountain goers.

J looked down at his pokémon, "This is a perfectly safe and practical way to travel. Jellyfish is my dive pokémon so it's already used to the extra weight and it doesn't mind the cold. It's not my fault you don't have one so I don't see why you'd have a grudge against me."

Sophocles did a very good impression of a boiling kettle.

"We can take another rest break if you need one," Ash offered from the front.

"Hold up cousin, I hear something," announced Prof. Kukui with a raise of his hand for silence.

After a moment of looking, the group heard a guttural grunt and spotted Tapu Bulu descend from above. The guardian deity came to a stop in front of Mallow for a moment before it abruptly rushed forward, picked her up and carried her of into the sky. Caught by surprise, Mallow did what any sensible person would do in her situation: panic, squirm and scream at the top of her lungs. As the ropes connecting her to the ground snapped, the group watched in stupefied silence as the Tapu carried her of into the distance.

"Do the Tapus of this world normally abduct people out of the blue," J deadpanned.

"No, no they definitely do not," Prof. Kukui replied.

Ash abruptly snapped out of his shock and started unclasping his hiking ropes so he could run after Mallow.

"ASH, what are you doing! It's not safe to remove those," cried Lana in panic.

"We have to go after her. These ropes are slowing us down," said Ash as removed the second last clasp before a large tentacle forcefully pushed him to the ground.

"Look Ash, I'm sure this is just Tapu Bulu's idea of a prank," J said sternly, "If the guardian deities don't have a history of abducting people then I'm sure she will be perfectly safe. On the other hand, if you go off the recommended hiking path without safety equipment then you will run into steeper ice slicked slopes. Add in frequent avalanches and other hazards that make the place unsuitable for settlement and I can guarantee that you WILL die. Just relax, calm down and when we get to the top, the ground will flatten out a bit and we can do some searching then."

The look on Ash's face clearly showed he didn't like J's slow and steady route but he begrudgingly agreed as Jellyfish's tentacle hovered over him threateningly and Pikachu sparked. The group resumed the climb with Ash no longer waiting for Sophocles but barely ten minutes later as they reached the half waypoint, Tapu Bulu returned.

"What did you do with Mallow," Ash yelled.

Tapu Bulu made no reply as it zipped behind Ash, looped its' arms under his shoulders and hoisted him into the air. Pikachu promptly zapped the fairy but it payed the rodent no mind as it gave a swift tug to dislodge the hiking ropes from the rocks.

"We've got to do something," shouted Lana in panic as she fumbled with her poké ball.

"Can't. You try hitting an airborne target that doesn't have the flight limitations of wings while avoiding the equally large human it's carrying as a shield," J interjected in annoyance, "Using fly is also illegal in Alola and a Charizard would never get here in time."

"Put me down!" Ash yelled as Tapu Bulu took him up, up and away.

As his friends disappeared from sight and Pikachu clung to him to endure the howling winds, Ash gave up on struggling, "You better be taking me to where Mallow is!"

Tapu Bulu gave a single grunt of agreement. After a short while through the howling blizzard filled winds, the grass fairy abruptly stopped and then dropped Ash without warning. He yelled for about two seconds before he and Pikachu literally fell into hot water. They quickly resurfaced with all the coughing and spluttering that that entails.

"Ash, is that you?" came Mallow's voice to his right.

"Mallow!" Ash cried jubilantly as he turned to see Mallow's head above the hot water.

He immediately made his way towards her before she promptly squealed, "DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!"

"Why not?" he replied perplexed.

Her face went beat red and wide eyed, "I, uh, I, well . . . "

Ash looked at her with an innocently expectant expression as waited.

Mallow looked away, hunching her shoulders enough to unintentionally bring them above the water surface and mumbled, "T-Tapu Bulu stole my clothes."

Ash's mind drew a blank on what that meant and what to do about that for a full five seconds before he span around blushing, "S-SORRY! I didn't realise."

Mallow just sank a bit deeper into the water and blew bubbles. This was soooo humiliating. Here she was, with her crush, in an unidentified hot spring on Mount Lanakila. While she was completely starkers.

"Well, if Tapu Bulu is gone then we should go find the others," Ash announced as he began to move to the waters edge.

"What?" she cried, lurching forward to grab the back of his collar, "Ash, directly above the five feet of rock wall around this hot spring is a raging blizzard. Your clothes are sopping wet. We'd both freeze to death in minutes if we left the hot spring."

"Oh . . . right," blinked Ash, "What do we do then?"

"We have to wait here," she replied with every shred of remaining dignity she could muster.

After five minutes of trying to look anywhere but at each other, Mallow broke the silence, "Ash, give me your shirt."

"Sure," Ash answered as he began to take of his jackets, "What do you need it for?"

"B-because it will be less embarrassing if I at least have _something_ to wear," stammered Mallow.

Handing his jackets of to Pikachu, who could barely hold the water logged items and stay above water, Ash proceeded to remove his shirt and hold it out for Mallow. Just as she was about to take it, Tapu Bulu swooped down and grabbed the shirt _and_ the jackets before flying back up into the blizzard above. If at all possible, Mallow's face went even redder as she realised her position was now even worse. Lillie and Lana were going to kill her when they found out about this.


	8. Chapter 8: Landfall

It's the chapter we've all been waiting for! No seriously, by the end of this chapter I won't have to deal with annoying time zones anymore. I'd like to apologise for leaving you all hanging for so long as I got carried away reading other fan fictions as well as various side projects. It's rather late but I'll be releasing the character profiles I mentioned last chapter to celebrate reaching 100 reviews, favourites and follows.  
UPDATE: It will now be listed as a forum on this site and has been fully updated so take a look if you feel like it. The link will be on my profile soon but you can look it up directly by searching Character Profiles for As Arceus Decrees It.

I would also like to officially appoint Ron the True Fan as the Beta for this story, assuming they're still interested. It has been awhile and I wouldn't be the slightest bit offended if they found something better to do in the interim. Anyway, congratulations if you accept but please remember that I can't send you anything until you set up a beta profile. Also Ron the True Fan had offered to do an Omake, which I would like to attach to the end of the next chapter. It won't be canon but it should give all of you a laugh. I've read some of his work so I can also assure any worried readers that it will be good quality.

Last thing of minor concern, these last few months someone with nothing better to do with their time has decided to harass me with mildly vulgar reviews. I don't really mind if people want to criticise my work but I draw the line at people setting up a bot to do it for them. I'll give it an A for ingenuity but D for effort and communication skills. Not only did I not understand the abbreviations they used but it's just downright disrespectful, petty and a waste of my time. In fact the only reason why I bothered to go about deleting the 50 or so reviews I got each day was because it wouldn't be fair to the other writers out there who are desperately trying to climb up to the coveted most reviews, favourites and follows pages. It would be nice if people had a bit more common sense and realised that spamming reviews will make the story look better and more popular thereby drawing more readers.

Anyway, I'm not sure whether it was me specifically or certain stories in general but I turned on the moderate reviews option to help me mitigate the problem. The admin seams to have caught on after all these months and blocked the reviews but it only works if I leave the setting on. So the crux of it and the only thing you really need to take away from this is not to panic if your anonymous review doesn't show up immediately. I still prefer an open door policy so if I notice a review waiting then good or bad I'll approve it so long as it's not a bot or highly vulgar. Now on to the chapter.

I do not own pokémon as it belongs to The Pokémon Company, Game Freak and Nintendo. Long may they reign!

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Chapter 8: Landfall

Kanto

Bzzzzzt Bzzzzzt

Lance, the Champion of both the Kanto and Johto regions stirred from sleep and automatically reached for his phone on the bedside table. Rousing himself with the training and professionalism that came with countless G-man missions, the Champion answered the phone with the standard greeting that wouldn't alert telemarketers to his identity, "Hello."

"LANCE YOU ASSHOLE!" blared the phone with a feminine Kalosian accent, "How could you have known about Ash being the CHOSEN ONE for at least FIVE YEARS and not have had the courtesy to tell me my region was going to turn into a potential WAR ZONE."

"Good morning Diantha, it's nice to hear from you too," Lance deadpanned with the humble opinion that it was way too early in the morning for him to be dealing with this crap.

"DON'T you DARE try to brush this off as if this isn't your problem!" yelled Diantha.

"Do you have any idea what time it is in Japan," Lance groaned, "You called at four o'clock in the morning. Even Bruno doesn't get up this early."

"Serves you right, now answer my question on why you ignored the full disclosure agreement between champions," Diantha snapped.

The Kanto Champion shrugged, "Does Cynthia tell us every time she digs up a tablet foretelling an apocalypse. This is the same kind of thing so it's on a need to know basis."

"The capital city of my region suffered over a billion dollars worth of damage, I think I needed to know," replied Diantha hotly.

"Not the worst damage I've seen, it's also not as serious as that incident where Hoopa nearly wiped one of your cities from existence," Lance responded.

"WHAT Hoopa incident! Why are you only telling me about this now!" Diantha said in a borderline frenzy.

Rubbing the bridge of his nose in annoyance, Lance ignored her query, "Look, how'd you even find out about Ash's status, it's highly classified."

"Ash's former traveling companion Serena told me," answered Diantha.

"But she doesn't- of course, Anabel must have told her," muttered Lance under his breath, "The number of times I've told that girl to stand down; stubborn irrational teenagers."

He heard Diantha take a deep breath on the other side of the phone to calm herself, "Putting aside how livid I am about you putting countless lives in danger by withholding information, what are we going to do about Ash's situation."

"Honestly . . . absolutely nothing," Lance replied.

"WHAT!" screeched the Kalosian woman, "The boy's a hero; some vendors have even started selling Ash action figures over here. We can't just leave him in a situation were he'll never be able to find love!"

Lance shook his head in exasperation. Women. Even worse was the fact that she came from Kalos, the region famous for art, food, fashion and most annoyingly in this case: romance. Of course she'd miss the big picture. He should have lied and told her a rescue op was under way like he had with Anabel.

"Diantha, please be reasonable," Lance began, "The boy is perfectly happy wandering from region to region and sticking his nose in every problem, anomaly and crime syndicate he comes across. He'd still do it even without a psychic pokémon there ready to heal him if he takes a bullet."

"Oh my Arceus," Diantha interrupted, "You knowingly let him go to America where they still have active gun lobbyists."

"Be that as it may," resumed the Kanto champion, "The benefits still vastly out way the tampered feelings of a few teenage girls. Did you know that in every region that Ash has gone to, cruelty to pokémon has gone down by at LEAST twenty percent. Even IF I wanted to stop Ash from SAVING the WORLD as if it were some crime to do so, I wouldn't be stupid enough to pick an unwinnable fight with the divine pantheon responsible for every aspect of our ecosystem.

Now if you want to be in the know regarding the boy, I am more then happy to send you the files providing you keep this under wraps. This is obviously a very sensitive matter and people acting rashly will only cause problems. I'll even pay for a therapist to help Serena get over her dream boyfriend since historical precedents has demonstrated that Mewtwo won't act unless she actively pursues her feelings. How does that sound? Can we work towards an understanding?"

There was a few moments silence before Diantha replied, "SCREW YOU, I'm going to tell all the other champions what you've done. I can't believe you'd do something this deplorable."

CLICK

Well that could have gone better. Lance switched off the after hours function on his phone and glared out his bedroom window at the predawn rays of sun before getting out of bed. It was going to be a long day today so he might as well get started. His opinion was only confirmed when he arrived at the office to have his receptionist tell him that an irate Wallace was on the phone. Obviously Diantha had told him about Mewtwo. Wonderful, that man always monologued for hours.

: :

: :

An hour or so after Tapu Bulu dropped Ash in the hot spring  
Ula'ula Island, Alola

Ash and Mallow's heads snapped up to the sound of barking. They waited with baited breath, hoping that it was a search team before the head of an Arcanine poked over the rocky ridge surrounding the hot spring.

"Oh thank Arceus," Mallow gasped in relief before asking the fire type, "Do you belong to officer Jenny? Are you part of the search team?"

The dog jostled slightly as someone hopped off it and then much to their surprise Lana came into view.

"Hey!" shouted Ash in greeting, "I didn't know you had an Arcanine?"

"Borrowed it," Lana deadpanned as she started to glare Mallow.

"Yes that's, uh, great," fidgeted the greenette, "Now that you're here we can finally get out of this hot spring without freezing to death. You've got rescue blankets or something right?"

"You're not wearing anything," accused Lana coldly.

"I-It's not my fault," Mallow yelled back flustered, "Tapu Bulu stole all my clothes and then stole Ash's shirt and jacket."

"Do you really expect me to believe that," Lana deadpanned again.

"That's what happened I swear," shouted Mallow.

"Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii,"  
(A/N: For those of you that don't know, Japanese Manga etc. use this 'sound' to indicate staring/glaring. It's weird but kind of funny once you get used to it.)

"Will you stop that!" Mallow squealed.

"We had an agreement. Lillie and I already told you that storing subways in your cleavage was pushing the envelope but this is too far," replied Lana sternly.

Then Lana took of her jacket and began stripping down to her underwear. Ash immediately turned around red faced while the Arcanine, seeing as the three didn't seem to be leaving, yawned and lay down for a nap.

"LANA! What do you think you're DOING!" Mallow gawked loudly.

"Making things fair," answered Lana mischievously as she did a few stretches, "Since you had quality alone time with Ash, now it's my turn. You can get out and use my clothes if you want. We could use the privacy."

Mallow sputtered while Lana dived in and swam right up to Ash with a Cheshire grin, "Well Ash, any ideas on what to do with a girl in a secluded hot spring?"

Ash leaned back a bit due to how close she was getting, "Well J did insist that everyone wore at least three layers so I guess that would means at least one shirt or jacket for each of us."

The Bluenette pouted, "You know, sometimes I really hate how dense you are."

Five minutes later when everyone was decent again, the Arcanine led them through the howling blizzard with both girls riding while Ash walked. It was cold even with the heat constantly permeating off the dog and Lana's shoes were far too small on his feet. Ash's actual shoes were drying on the fire types back. Thankfully they could see the vague outline of a pokémon centre complete with neon poké ball along and Kiawe's Turtonator out front.

"Hey! Guys, are you alright!" Kiawe shouted as he waved at them, "We've been searching all over for you."

"I'm freezing," Mallow chattered, "Please tell me Nurse Joy has something warm to drink inside."

"She's got hot Cocoa along with your clothes. Would you mind explaining that by the way," shrugged Kiawe.

Mallow just growled and darted into the pokémon centre as quickly as the snow would allow her.

"Is everyone else alright? I hope Tapu Bulu didn't pull anymore pranks," asked Ash.

Kiawe waved Ash's concerns aside, "Their fine. After you got carried off and everyone made it to the top we split up with fire pokémon. Sophocles and I paired up but he tired quickly so we came back early. Have you used the flute yet?"

"Uh, no?" Ash replied lamely.

"Well go on. We came all this way so you might as well get it over with before we go inside," coaxed Kiawe.

Ash pulled out the flute and stared at it tentatively before placing it to his lips and blowing gently. No sound came out but Pikachu covered its' ears and the Arcanine gave an annoyed snort so he guessed it worked. They proceeded inside the pokémon centre and made a beeline for the couches around a heating unit where the young genius was waiting for them.

"Your back! I've got some great news," Sophocles exclaimed, "I managed to get in contact with Lillie to update her on the situation. She's coming to pick us up in a helicopter so we won't have to climb down the mountain, isn't that great!"

"Really, that's great Sophocles. Can you get in contact with her again so we can tell her that Mallow and I are alright," chuckled Ash.

Sophocles stammered something about Lillie not coming with a chopper if she knew Ash was alright and not wanting to climb down the mountain again but ultimately folded under Ash's cluelessly optimistic gaze. He pulled out his tablet and hooked up the satellite connection while the others crowded around.

The transmission flickered briefly before Lillie's face appeared and immediately lit up, "Ash! Thank goodness, I was so worried!"

He laughed, completely missing the light dusting of pink on her cheeks, "This was nothing, just another day on the road for me. You should have seen some of the stuff that happened to me back in Kanto."

Lana leaned forward, "Mallow took Ash skinny-dipping in one of the hot springs."

"WHHAAAT!" Lillie shrieked loud enough to cause a painful feedback loop on the speakers.

"She's fibbing, as usual," Sophocles assured while extracting his fingers from his ears.

"What does skinny-dipping mean?" asked Ash.

"It means to swim without clothes," Kiawe sighed with his hands ready to cover his ears again.

"Oh, in that case she's telling the truth since Tapu Bulu stole her clothes and then stole my shirt and jacket," Ash nodded, "Or would that be three quarters of the truth since I still had my pants?"

Both guys stared at him with their mouths open, "That's the part your concerned about!"

"Where is she?" said Lillie in a sickly sweet voice that would have reminded some of her mother when truly angered. However they'd never seen that side of Lusamine so they were all doomed.

"I think she went to get changed. I'll go retrieve her," Kiawe shrugged.

"Sophocles, why don't you give Lana the tablet and take Ash to go talk to Nurse Joy about the local Drampa. I'm sure he'd like that," Lillie smiled.

The young genius squirmed, "But it's my tablet."

"Now Sophocles!" Lillie ordered.

"But-"  
"Hey guys, I see everyone's ba- yikes, déjà vu, I'm just going to go and feed my Arcanine," said J before he hurried off.

The blonde gave a sigh of defeat and took Ash away just as Mallow returned fully dressed.

Lillie's smile disappeared, "Lana told me what you've been up to. We had an agreement."

Mallow bristled, "Hey, none of this was my fault. **I** was abducted."

Lillie stuck her nose in the air like the rich girl she was, "Three girls having a crush on the same guy is difficult enough. We came up with the agreement so that we wouldn't ruin our friendship and also so that no one would take advantage of his innocence."

"It's true, Ash is completely defenceless," nodded Lana sagely.

"Hey, I heard that! I can totally defend myself from wild pokémon." Ash called back.

"The defence rests their case," Lana stated.

"Then in accordance with the agreement, we'll be taking Ash to the beach tomorrow and your grounded for the day. It will be a group activity so the others will probably come along. I think that's fair, don't you," announced Lillie imperiously.

"Fine," Mallow ground out, "Can we just stop talking about it, I've already found the day humiliating enough."

Lillie turned her head to something said on her end before turning back, "The pilot says we'll be there in five minutes. I'm looking forward to telling you all about dad. He's got amnesia and mum got really mad that he ate nothing but poké beans and got really overweight but I'm really happy he's back."

: :

: :

Pallet Town, Kanto

When you're put to sleep by sing, you wake up feeling refreshed and relaxed. When you're put to sleep by sleep powder, you wake up feeling woozy and in need of a good coffee. All the girls had slept till around midday and stared bleary eyed at Prof. Oak as he explained what advancements and arrangements they were able to make that morning.

"So that raps up the atomic structure of the crystal and with a few more hours we will have applied the protective coating to the remaining 37 pendants bringing the total up to 50. I seem to have misplaced one of the completed pendants somewhere but that's still more than enough for everyone," rambled Prof. Oak, "We've booked the plane flights for tonight although we had to go through several different companies to do so. It's an eight hour flight and a four hour change in time zones so we'll arrive in Alola on the following morning. Serena's group should be arriving at about the same time, as was Norman's last time I spoke to him.

It's paramount that we link up with them as quickly as possible to hand over the pendants and then locate Ash who should be in the vicinity of my cousin's trainer school. The pendants should provide us a blind spot in Mewtwo's sensor range but it is still likely that he may show up. I must emphasise on the lot of you that any combat must be for the purpose of getting away and escorting Ash to the hospital. I've called the head of the psychic treatment ward so they will be expecting Ash but most of the hospital staff are unaware so as not to tip Mewtwo off in advance.

In the mean time you will need to occupy yourselves without getting in the way of our work. You are free to explore the grounds and Delia has invited all of you over if you would like but otherwise there's not much to do in a small town like Pallet."

Leaf banged her head on the table, "I forgot how long his sermons went for."

"At least we had had breakfast to eat while we listened," Anabel conceded.

"Your that Salon Maiden right? Can you remind me why two of your colleagues are here?" yawned Rosa.

"Oh, well Noland is here for his technical expertise and I think Lucy is just using this turn of events as an excuse to see Brock," shrugged Anabel.

Misty got up and stretched, "Well I'm going down to see Ash's pokémon. I take it you'll all be joining me?"

Leading the way down to where Ash's pokémon were gathered, Misty went through a quick introduction for those who hadn't met before they all broke off to interact and reconnect with those they were familiar with.

Leaf immediately glomped Ash's Snorlax, mumbling something about how they made the best pillows.

Oshawott exuberantly ran up to Hilda and Rosa who crouched, "You remember us, don't you Oshawott."

Anabel and Angie went over to soothe Bayleef who looked resentfully grumpy.

"I heard Ash trained some dragon type pokémon. Look at how beautiful you are," Iris gushed at Noivern while Axew went to say hello to Ash's Gible who promptly clamped down on Axew's head.

After a about an hour of making new friends and cheering up the pokémon that weren't going to go with them to Alola, the group made their way back through the lab and on towards Ash's house.

"Do you think we'll find anything in his room," suggested Leaf, moving her eyebrows suggestively.

"Ash isn't like that," Misty said stone-faced.

"You don't know, it has been several years after all," replied Leaf in a singsong voice, "After all, he is a guy and, as I've been told on numerous occasions, they do have needs."

"Ash isn't like that," Anabel reiterated.

"Oh poo, you two are no fun. Does anyone know if he still has that bunk bed?" Leaf asked.

The question went unanswered as they arrived and were greeted by Delia who insisted they all have lunch despite their late breakfast.

"So Hilda, your mother tells me you're quite the champion," said Delia conversationally.

"Yes, well, Alder was looking to retire and once I sent Zekrom out he kind of finished things," mumbled Hilda with a nervous blush.

"And what about you Bianca," Delia enquired, "Your parents said you and Hilda are childhood friends yet I recall Ash saying you were just starting out."

"Dad didn't let me start for two years. He thought it was too dangerous especially with Team Plasma around," Bianca explained tentatively.

Delia nodded, "I've heard about them, especially after last night. You have no idea how glad I am that they were shut down before Ash had a chance to run into them."

Iris and Rosa started to fidget while Anabel coughed into her fist.

"Now Angie, your family runs a day care in Sinnoh right? You must have a great deal on experience with a wide variety of pokémon," complimented Delia.

Angie nodded, "I do but to be honest I'm not entirely sure if it's what I want to do with my life. Or at least I'm not sure if I want to do it full time."

"Oh, that's alright. You've got you whole life ahead of you so there's no need to rush into just one lifestyle," Delia chuckled.

Once they'd eaten as much as they were able and helped with the dishes, everyone went up to finally see Ash's room.

"You know, you can come in," said Misty as she dusted off a few of the books on Ash's shelf.

Rosa rocked back and forth on her heals in the doorway, "I'm not sure if I'm ready yet."

"I was expecting it to be messier," Dawn noted.

"Well he's not here that often anymore. What were you expecting?" asked Leaf as she lifted up Ash's mattress to check underneath.

"A pigsty like Barry's room back in my hometown," shrugged Dawn noncommittally.

"Rosa, Yancy, come on in already," Hilda beckoned, "look, I found a photo album."

"I've never been inside a boys room before okay. This is a really big deal for me," Rosa flushed, "Besides, how are you and Bianca so blasé about this."

Bianca put her finger to her chin in thought, "Well I suppose it was because we got used to it when we were little. I mean there was Cheren and-"

"LEAF! I am not letting you rifle through Ash's underwear draw to search for dirty magazines. For goodness sake have some respect Ash's privacy!" yelled Anabel as she forcibly pulled the whining brunette away from said area.

"Maybe we should step in on the count of three," Yancy suggested to Rosa who nodded nervously, "1 . . . 2 . . . 3!"

They stepped through together and let out a sigh. Yancy proceeded over to where Hilda and Bianca were while a gold glimmer caught Rosa's eye. Moving over to where Iris stood, Rosa looked down at Ash's numerous badges and awards out on display.

"I always called him 'such a kid'," remarked Iris idly, "Yet even before we met, he'd already achieved so much more than me even now. He never really mentioned any of this. He always argued that he wasn't a little kid but he never tried to big note himself by bragging about all his badges and awards."

"I guess it just goes to show that the more you see, the more you know that there will always be someone out that that's stronger than you," Rosa said as she traced her fingers over the different badges and symbols. She giggled when her fingers touched the rainbow badge.

"Hey Misty, who drew this sketch," asked Angie as she indicated.

Misty's eyebrow twitched as she looked over, "Someone in Altomare drew that as a thankyou. Don't worry about it, I'm sure it won't come up again."

: :

: :

That night,  
Viridian airport, Kanto

"Does everyone have their pendants and their tickets," asked Prof. Oak to the group at large.

"Yes," chimed everyone in a bored monotone.

"Good, than I'll go over the plan one last time," nodded the Professor before going into lecture mode, "We will arrive at the international airport on Akala Island and meet up with May and Serena's groups to hand over the pendants. Than we will catch a ferry over to Melemele Island and proceed to the trainer school where Delia and myself and no one else, will directly approach Ash and ask him to come to the hospital. If all of you converge at once than you will create a panic. If Mewtwo intervenes than you all have permission to converge on our position and we will all assist each other in getting Ash to the hospital. Are there any questions?"

Dawn raised her hand, "Anabel hasn't come back from the bathroom yet."

Lucy coughed awkwardly, "Actually, she couldn't wait to see Ash so as soon as she received her pendant, she excused herself and used her authority as an International Police Officer to get a high speed private jet to Alola. It will arrive in Alola an hour or two before ours, depending on the weather."

"That Bitch!" shouted Leaf.

Prof. Oak pinched his brows and sighed as the group of young women before him promptly descended into anarchy.

: :

: :

Melemele Island, Alola

One seven hour flight and a ferry ride later found Anabel strolling down the sunlit streets of Hau'oli City with a hum on her lips and a skip in her step. She'd slept and showered on the plane and had changed into an outfit identical to the one she had met Ash in (sadly the original had not survived her trip through ultra space intact). Some might call such lengths unnecessary but she wanted to maximise the odds of Ash recognising her. That and her current attire was a good deal cooler than a suit. Anabel hadn't been unwilling to cut her ponytail though. If he noticed, she'd ask him which hairstyle he preferred but she was quite certain Ash would just tell her both looked nice.

Prof. Oak (the tanned one) had cheerily informed her that Ash and his classmates (bar one girl for some odd reason) had gone to the beach for the day. Why the school had such a lax and flexible schedule confused her a little but it suited her purposes since everyone was amicable and willing to divulge the information she wanted without the slightest concern for security. That was something she might need to look into if they planned to stay here for a while but for now she'd just enjoy the unusual amount of greenery Hau'oli city had compared to other cities.

Turning the corner and finally seeing the beach up ahead, Anabel's eyes were drawn to the sight of Ash buying some ice creams from a mobile vendor set up just before the grass met sand.

"Ash!" she called, breaking into a run and waving, "Ash!"

"Hmm? Anabel, what are you doing here?!" Ash exclaimed when he looked up.

Her heart leapt to her throat. He remembered her! After all this time he still recognised her instantly.

"Oh Ash," Anabel smiled, taking his hands in hers as soon as she reached him (and unintentionally preventing him from taking the tray of ice creams), "You have no idea how good it is to see you again."

He opened his mouth to reply but his eyes widened at something over her shoulder and his jaw dropped open. Feeling a malevolent pressure behind her, Anabel turned around (keeping one of Ash's hands in hers) and saw Mewtwo floating just ten feet in front of her.

'Why hello Anabel,' projected Mewtwo tersely, 'I was under the impression you had already been dealt with.'

Ash stammered at the sight of the purple legendary while the Frontier Brain tensed.

"You know, I've been waiting a long time for this," Anabel smirked, "Raikou, sic 'im."

Mewtwo's eyes narrowed, 'You don't have a-' **CRACK**

One moment he has there, the next something large, gold and oh so very electrified had ploughed him through a row of trees. An interesting thing to note about Raikou and the move wild charge was that Raikou was more of a special attack specialist. Statistically, wild charge, while one of the best physical moves, was not something that a Raikou should use in comparison to something like discharge or thunder. However one shouldn't forget that Raikou is a very large pokémon, being six feet tall and weighing roughly three times that of a human. Then if you take into account that Raikou embodies the speed of lightning, it can go at, well, the speed of lightning. So if someone were to ever teach Raikou that move, one could safely assume that being hit by wild charge from a Raikou would roughly feel like being hit by an electrified truck. Sadly, Mewtwo no longer had the presence of mind to debate such interesting pieces of trivia.

"MEWTWO! Anabel, why did you attack Mewtwo?" shouted Ash in shock.

"Ash, I need you to listen to me" said Anabel as she look Ash straight in the eye, "Things might be very confusing at the moment but Mewtwo hasn't been as kind to you as you may think."

"But-"

"Do you trust me!" Anabel interjected.

"Of course," replied Ash instantly.

A roar of psychically projected rage interrupted them as Raikou flew, bounced and then skidded before flipping back onto all fours in front of them. Its' battered psychic adversary floating back into view within an orb of power.

'I'm impressed,' heaved Mewtwo, 'but did you really think that's all it would take to stop me!'

Anabel made no reply. Mewtwo's head snapped up at the sound of a high pitched whistle. He tried to dodge. He really did, but it's hard to dodge a Latios flying at you at top speed.

"We have to go. My pokémon will only be able to hold him off for so long," Anabel instructed.

She pulled on Ash's arm to leave only to snag when he didn't move.

"Wait, Pikachu and the others are still at the beach," said Ash.

Anabel bit her lip. She could hardly expect Ash to just leave his pokémon so she nodded and let Ash lead the way praying that it wouldn't take long.

Weaving in and out of various beach goers, Ash quickly led Anabel to his Alolan friends. There were two girls, Prof. Kukui, three guys and several small pokémon dancing on a large and elaborately constructed sandcastle constructed on top of a- No.

Her brain froze. NO! Her legs and arms seized up as her breathing became erratic. It just wasn't possible! The sounds around Anabel became a congealed blur as her heart hammered in her chest. HOW could that _THING_ be here! She didn't register Ash tugging on her arm or his pleas for her to answer. Her eyes glazed yet fixed on the titanic black mass half buried in the sand. NO!

"Anabel! Anabel! What's wrong, answer me," cried Ash frantically.

"Ash, what took so long . . ." called Lillie before she trailed off.

Kiawe jogged up to Ash and his new companion, "What's the matter?"

"I don't know. One second she was fine, the next she was like this," Ash explained with growing distress.

"Lie her down," ordered Prof. Kukui as he walked over, "It looks like a panic attack but she seems to young to be suffering from something like PTSD."

Ash tried to ease Anabel down but her legs were rigid even though she was now shaking.

"Something the matter? Surely getting ice cream isn't that complicated," said J as he looked over his shoulder while cleaning his Guzzlord's upper teeth with a large metal brush.

J looked at Anabel. Then he looked at Guzzlord. Then he looked back at Anabel. Then J swore loudly.

"Do you know what's wrong with Anabel," Ash asked with hopeful desperation as J darted around to the side of his pokémon.

"Get off! Shoo! Go on! Scram!" J commanded briskly as he gestured at Popplio and the other pokémon, going so far as to sweep Litten off the back of his dragon.

"Hey, don't do that to someone else's pokémon," shouted Lana indignantly.

The jumper ignored her as he shooed the last pokémon of Guzzlord's back before slamming a blue ball into its' black hide. This immediately caused the sand castle to collapse and fall a good four metres as the dark dragon was recalled.

Anabel's hand flexed in Ash's and immediately recaptured his attention. Managing with some difficulty to lie her down, he and Prof. Kukui managed to calm Anabel down after several minutes.

"Is it gone?" asked Anabel in a husky whisper.

"You're safe Anabel," Ash comforted, "I don't know what made you react like that but your safe now. I'll protect you."

She rubbed his thumb in her hand, "The black creature."

"You mean J's Guzzlord," blurted Ash, not understanding.

Anabel tensed momentarily but forced herself to relax. She sat up slowly and looked at Ash's friends, all crowded around her with concern. Her gaze than fixed on the one person standing back, scowling at the sand. She noted two blue beast balls on one of the straps hanging from his belt. That was two far too many than what she was comfortable with someone having.

Taking a deep breath and pulling herself to her feet with Ash's offered hand, Anabel stumbled before steadying herself and storming forward and grabbing the mystery trainer's shirt.

"WHY do you have that . . . that _monster_?" Anabel yelled.

He looked her in the eyes and where as before there had been some guilt, now there was just stubborn defiance, "Look, I'm sorry about the ultra beast. I didn't think anybody here would recognise it so I thought it would be safe to let it out to feed it and do some grooming."

"Safe, Safe! What part of that creature looks _safe_ to you?" shouted Anabel, "They EAT EVERYTHING! Rocks, trees, pokémon, people, houses, mountains. They just don't stop and they're vicious and scary and . . . and . . . "

She was crying now, though she wasn't sure whether they were tears of anger or trauma.

The trainer sighed, "I know they have a bad reputation and you are far from the first person in my travels to freak out upon seeing one. I'm sorry. The tragic thing is, they're actually pretty docile once you feed them the correct food."

She punched him. He probably didn't deserve it but it made her feel better and he didn't look that perturbed by it.

"Ash, grab your pokémon, we're leaving," Anabel announced.

Ash looked confused but quickly recalled his pokémon and called Pikachu over. He glanced at J to see if he was alright but J just shrugged and jerked his head at Anabel.

"You're coming too," ordered Anabel as she flicked her international police badge out, "I want answers as to why you have a UB Glutton."

The other teenagers looked like they were going to intervene but Prof. Kukui shook his head.

J shrugged again and murmured, "Sure, why not," before following Ash an Anabel at a more sedate pace.

They had to push through a small crowd when they got to the edge of the beach. The large stretch of grass and adjacent road had become a blistered and scorched warzone on which the three legendary pokémon sparred. Anabel's pokémon didn't look too battered while Mewtwo had clearly taken multiple direct high speed hits.

Mewtwo's eyes fixed on Anabel and Ash as they came through the crowd of onlookers. 'This isn't over!' he snarled before teleporting away.

"Don't gawk, come on, let's go," said Anabel as she recalled Raikou and gestured for Latios to remain on guard.

: :

: :

Making it to the hospital's shielded psychic treatment ward was a huge relief to Anabel. Her strategy for overcoming Mewtwo had relied on the fact that while Mewtwo couldn't be overpowered, he could be outpaced. Latios and Raikou were among the fastest pokémon alive which was why she had specifically sought them out to catch. Latios had also run enough psychic interference to prevent Mewtwo from brain controlling Ash into attacking her.

Leaning back in her seat within the empty waiting room of the psychic treatment ward, Anabel wished again that she were considered 'family' and thus able to stay with Ash as the specialists explained what had happened to him and what they wanted to do to treat it. She opened her eyes to look at J, the only other person currently present in the room, as he twiddled his thumbs. Anabel's first impression was that she didn't like him. The young man had been cooperative when she questioned him, so long as she carefully worded her questions to make sure he couldn't get away with one word answers.

Apparently he was a 'jumper' who had been caught red handed and decided that pretending this was a perfectly normal everyday occurrence was the best way to not cause a scene. Anabel had felt guilty when he informed her that he had been the one to initially report Ash's condition. Guilt had then given way to fury when he encountered Mewtwo and basically abandoned Ash to his fate, stating: 'As nice as he is; I'm not willing to risk my life for someone I've just met.' Moving on from what had happened, she'd asked more about his jumper background to which he gave some very general rules and information like 'not getting involved in local affairs' and 'don't hand out perpetual energy reactors' as well as the fact that he had a D-Rank jumpers licence (which he had refused to show her).

A loud chime interrupted her thoughts as an announcement came over the hospital loud speaker.

"Attention all staff, patients and guests. The Alolan government has issued a severe weather warning and requests that everyone stay indoors. The legendary pokémon Zapdos is passing over the city and has caused a large electrical storm that has already resulted in a citywide blackout. I repeat, it is extremely dangerous outside and the Alolan government requests that everyone stay indoors. Our backup generators are already online so all services and procedures will continue uninterrupted. Thankyou for choosing Hau'oli City hospital and have a nice day."

'So Mewtwo had sent for backup. It was a bit late now,' thought Anabel

"You do realise that psychic pokémon by law can't conduct a DPRS without being monitored by electrical equipment. If Zapdos finds and fries that backup generators, Ash's procedure will be cancelled for a bare minimum of 48 hours. That's not even including the time it will take for the machines to be recalibrated," noted J as if it were just minor trivia.

Eyes wide, Anabel shot to her feet as if she had been burned and raced towards the exit.

"Hey, What gives!" J yelped as Anabel grabbed his wrist and pulled him along.

She didn't dignify him with an answer until they were outside the hospital main doors. Wind howled and battered against their bodies. What had been a perfect sunny sky was now an ominous black cloud as multiple bolts of lightning descended upon the city every few seconds. The deafening booms of thunder brought no rain and circling above the metropolis soared the source. Zapdos, illuminated in golden white, showered lightning down with every screech. Worse yet, it was almost upon them.

"You are going to _help_ me deal with Zapdos," instructed Anabel.

"No," replied J flatly.

"Yes you are!" Anabel snapped indignantly.

"Why," J deadpanned.

"Because you're a good person," said Anabel.

"Really?" replied J in surprise.

"Aargh!" screamed Anabel in frustration, "I don't have time for another round of your mind games J. You have a Solgaleo and a UB Glutton so you are going to help me protect Ash and that's final."

"Make me," J glared.

*Click*

"Did you just . . . handcuff me to your wrist?" gaped J incredulously.

Anabel gave his right arm a firm yank with her left, "You are going to be in the firing line whether you like it or not so you might as well help because one way or another, I'm going to stop Zapdos."

J huffed, grabbing a poké ball from his belt, "Fine. Go, Raticate!"

"Really," Anabel deadpanned, "A raticate. We are about to go toe to toe with one of the three LEGENDARY birds and you send out a Raticate!"

"Rat is plenty useful," J exclaimed in mock defence, "Look I'll prove it to you, Rat use hyper fang on the handcuffs."

Anabel had to yank the handcuffs upwards as the raticate took a flying leap at the chain, "Fine, if that's the way you want to play it then go Metagross. Use psychic to give our landlocked teammate a hand and fling Raticate at Zapdos."

Picking up the brown fur ball in its' psychic grasp, Metagross carefully took aim and lobbed the wide eyed raticate at Zapdos like a spinning cannonball. The bird of thunder saw the harmlessly miniscule projectile and screeched imperiously at it. Rat, being a small skittish mammal being hurled at something a dozen times its' size, did what any sensible rodent in its' position would do: it used super fang. Fangs glowing red, the raticate struck the right wing and bounced over it in a spray of red. Zapdos screeched in agony as exactly half its' health was inflicted in a line across its' wing and broke the bone. As the rodent landed awkwardly on some apartment's clothesline, the great yellow bird careened into and empty office building.

"Well that was unexpected," said Anabel.

J winced, "I think that counts as a technicality."

: :

: :

In the skies surrounding Alola, Dawn stared bored out her plane window at the endless sea. Her attention was drawn to a large bird that dipped below the clouds. It was an unusual pokémon, one she didn't recognise yet vaguely thought she should. Yellow feathers with a plume of fire upon its' head and it had wings and a tail that seamed almost made of flame. Dawn debated whether she should wake Leaf up next to her to look at the rare sight. As the bird flew closer to the plane she decided it was best to share experiences and jostled the Kanto girl gently on the shoulder.

"Leaf, wake up. There's a rare pokémon out the window," coaxed Dawn softly.

"Mmh, wha?" Leaf responded sleepily.

"There's a rare bird pokémon outside the window," Dawn repeated.

"Dawn, I know they're not in Sinnoh but I don't want to be woken up to see a Pidgeot flying intercontinental. I've got one already; they're pretty common," grumbled Leaf as she tried to go back to sleep.

"No Leaf, wake up. This bird had fire on its' wings," badgered Dawn as the flaming pokémon drew alongside the plane.

Leaf snapped wide awake and all but shoved Dawn aside to look out the window, "Oh Arceus! This is bad. This is very, very bad!"

"What are you talking about," Dawn complained as she pushed back so she could see out the window.

Just in time to see the bird, which had moved itself behind the wing and garnered the attention of a number of other passengers, rear its' head back and shoot a jet of flame directly into one of the engines. The bluenette stared in morbid horror as several other people screamed and the whole plane jerked. A ping alerted her to the fasten seatbelts light and a flight attendant ran stricken down the aisle to inform the pilots what had happened.

"That's Moltres, one of the three legendary birds of Kanto," explained Leaf with shaking terror, "If it's doing what I'm sure it's doing then we're all going to die and there is nothing we can do about it."

Dawn watched with silent tears as Moltres realigned itself with the plane wing. She was too young to die. She hadn't confessed to Ash yet, hadn't won a grand festival, hadn't done anything. Moltres reared its' head back again and . . . and . . .

Something black wreathed in green shot through her field of vision and Moltres disappeared from view. It happened so fast that Dawn barely processed it and wondered whether it was her imagination. The loud sonic boom that rocked the plane a moment later proved otherwise.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't already, please fasten your seatbelts. We have arrived in Alola and are about to be making an emergency landing at Akala Island airport," announced the pilot over the speakers.

: :

: :

Deep in a dark forest, far from any route that trainers travelled, a man in a dark red cloak sat on a severed tree stump. There was no one else present or for miles around, save for the shifting shadow that circled relentlessly around the tree stump.

Suddenly a phone rang. It seamed utterly unnatural in such an eerie desolate place. The man answered it without a word.

The voice on the other end was a reverberating and glitchy overlap of synthesised words, "We have a situation."

: :

: :

Canon Omake: What happens when J visits a universe outside his neighbourhood that doesn't try to kill him.

"So let me get this straight. You have these things called gate cards and these little metallic orbs that turn into giant monsters," said J, "And whenever you activate these things time freezes."

"That's right," nodded the white haired girl.

"And you've never taken advantage of this feature too, I don't know, get extra time on an exam of something?" J asked incredulously.

"Uh,"

: :

"You there, hand over all your money or face the wrath of my Beyblade," shouted some street punk.

"A what?" asked J.

"Let it rip!" the street punk yelled.

"Is that a spinning top? Are you _seriously_ threatening me with a spinning top?" J gaped.

"A beyblade isn't JUST a spinning top dude. Have you been living under a rock or something. Now hand over all your money or I'll treat you to a whirlwind of despair," replied the teen hotly.

The jumper gave him a flat expression before tossing a great ball, "Go Aggron, use stomp."

ROAR  
WOMP  
SCREECH  
CRUNCH

"My . . . my beyblade," gaped the street punk

"Now since you asked for all my money, is there some kind of rule where I get all of yours if I win," J questioned in an exacting fashion.

The kid ran off screaming.

: :

"Hey Tea," asked J, "How does it feel knowing your boyfriend has a solid hologram generating deck full of girls that are arguably more attractive than you?"

: :

"Hey Gwen, the next time your cousin uses that fancy watch of his, do you want to try catching him with a poké ball?" J suggested.

: :

: :

A/N: Thankyou everyone for reading and I'll actually be doing another chapter of this story before going back to my fire emblem fic. The downside of that is that I want to do a whole string of fire emblem chapters so that I don't lose any of the elements I've planned while switching stories.


End file.
